
Gopyiiglitl^?, 



COEffllGHT DEPOSm 



THE NEW LATIN AMEEICA 



THE 

NEW LATIN AMERICA 



- ^^ . BY 

J. 'WARSHAW, Ph.D. 

Professor in the University of Nebraska; Corresponding 
Member of the Hispanic Society of America 



With an Introduction by 
JAMES E. LeROSSIGNOL, LL.D. 

Dean of the College of Business Administration, 
University of Nebraska 



•V 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



.Vi '.1 



Copyright, 1922, 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 



^ '^^ ..- //../} 




AUC 11 '22 

Printed in the United States of America 



©CI,Ar>Sl839 



TO MY WIFE 

WHOSE ASSISTANCE AND ADVICE 
HAVE BEEN INVALUABLE TO ME 



INTRODUCTION 

The average American of these United States who re- 
members his geography may know that America was 
discovered by an Italian from Spain, that tobacco is grown 
in Cuba and coffee in Brazil, that the Amazon is the 
largest river in the world, that the forests of those regions 
are full of tapirs, jaguars and boa constrictors, that the 
condor of the Andes is one of the largest birds, that 
cattle abound on the pampas of Argentina, and that 
revolutions are endemic in Mexico and Central America; 
but he would have trouble in carrying on a conversation 
of ten minutes about Latin America, and the writing of 
a thousand-word essay on the subject would drive him 
to despair. To such a person Dr. Warshaw's admirable 
book should come as a revelation, expanding his intel- 
lectual horizon, mitigating his provincialism and his 
Anglo-Saxon prejudice, and teaching him to recognize 
and appreciate the truly remarkable achievements of 
Latin- American civilization. 

It is, indeed, surprising to find urban conditions in 
Latin America so similar to those of the United States, 
although in every part of the civilized world they seem 
to be conforming to certain types. Buenos Aires, for 
example, is a great seaport comparable to any of our own, 
with the usual ships, wharfs, railway terminals, derricks, 
flying cranes, grain elevators, packing plants, stores, office 
buildings, magnificent streets, electric lights, trolleys, motor 
cars, hotels, banks, churches, schools, hospitals, art gal- 
leries, newspapers, theaters, movies, and all the other con- 
ventional equipment of a modern metropolis. Even in the 
country districts one finds the most approved agricultural 
and mining machinery, roads, railways, bridges, telegraph 
lines, irrigation works, and fences, even, so like our own 
that one wonders whether Latin America is being ''Ameri- 
canized" or whether the material progress so ch9,racteristiQ 

vii 



viii Introduction 

of the United States is but a phase of a far wider movement 
going on in every part of the world. 

The same question arises as one reads of the more strictly- 
cultural side of Latin- American life : the magnificent build- 
ings and the noted scholars of many universities, the fine 
Law School at Pernambuco, Brazil, the Agricultural School 
at Sayago, Uruguay, the Military School at Rio de Janeiro, 
the Palace of Fine Arts at Santiago, Chile, the Coyoacan 
Art School of Mexico City. And then, of course, the cities 
have their leading merchants, manufacturers, physicians, 
lawyers, educators, clergymen, architects, painters, musi- 
cians; nor are the women's club and the feminist movement 
lacking to complete the picture of up-to-date, progressive 
civilization which is rapidly spreading everywhere and 
doing so much to unify the world. 

While thus pointing out the resemblances between Latin- 
American civilization and our own. Dr. Warshaw by no 
means ignores the many points of difference due to race, 
history, geographical conditions, economic resources, and 
the savage background, which in some of the countries 
makes their civilization shine with a brilliant and almost 
lurid light. The ways of the Latins are in many respects 
different from ours, but all things considered, they have 
achieved notable results in encroaching upon the primitive 
savagery and in discovering and exploiting the vast re- 
sources which lay at their disposal, though frequently in 
difficult, if not inaccessible places. In this process of 
development the Latins have been greatly aided by foreign 
capital and adventurous spirits from the British Isles, Ger- 
many, Italy and, more recently, from the United States, 
many of whom have been consoled for their self-imposed 
exile by rich material rewards. Not a few of these have 
settled down among their Latin friends and neighbors, and 
it is interesting to find in Chile and elsewhere their 
descendants bearing such names as Tomas Le Breton and 
Vicuna Mackenna, reminding one of the old time soldiers 
of fortune of the British Isles who used to take part in 
foreign wars and whose descendants are now found in many 
parts of continental Europe. 



Introduction ix 

Of all the foreign pioneers of Latin America the most 
highly esteemed have been the British, because of their 
large investments and their reputation for solidarity, sin- 
cerity, and other sterling qualities. As Dr. Warshaw well 
says, ''The word of an Englishman {palahra de ingles) 
is the gold standard of commercial honor throughout Latin 
America." During the past generation the Germans have 
pushed the British hard, and they are now recovering a 
considerable part of the trade lost during the war. Of 
late years the trade of the United States with Latin 
America has much increased and is likely to grow to large 
proportions as larger investments are made and our com- 
mercial representatives establish themselves more per- 
manently in the countries where they do business. There 
are now about 100 branches of American banks in Latin 
America, of which about 42 are controlled by the National 
City Bank of New York. United States capital, too, has 
been invested in shipping companies, the fruit business, 
meat packing, nitrate fields, mining and other lines of 
development — all of which contribute to the expansion of 
trade and to friendly relations with our fellow Americans. 

Naturally, Dr. Warshaw has something to say of the 
Monroe Doctrine, the Panama Canal, Pan-Americanism, 
and other international questions, and his comments on the 
Latin point of view should help us to see ourselves as others 
see us. It will surprise many people to learn that Latin 
Americans are more or less touchy on the Monroe Doctrine, 
that they consider our protective tariff a serious handicap to 
their foreign trade, that they resent our patronage, suspect 
us of imperialism, speak of the "Yankee Peril," and, in 
general, dispute our claim to primacy in Pan-American 
affairs. All this gives food for thought, and suggests that 
our merchants, manufacturers, investors, bankers, ship- 
owners, railway magnates, statesmen, and the general public 
must become more ' ' internationally minded ' ' if they would 
establish friendly and profitable relations with our Latin 
neighbors upon a firm and lasting basis. 

James E, LeRossignol. 



PREFACE 

My chief aim has been to present a faithful picture of 
progressive Latin America, the Latin America of to-day, 
the Latin America which is still too generally unknown. 

Scores of books have dealt with the history of Latin 
America or of the various Latin American countries, scores 
of others have summarized the impressions of travelers, 
many have been compiled from commercial data, and a 
few have furnished their readers with chapters or apergus 
on specific signs of social, political, and economic im- 
provement: but practically none has attempted to offer a 
comprehensive and reasoned account of the onward moving 
Latin America of the present moment. It is, nevertheless, 
the last-mentioned Latin America which should appeal most 
to the general reader : it is that Latin America about which 
the general reader needs most to be informed : and it is with 
that Latin America that the public of the United States, 
above all, should become more intimately acquainted. 

The point of view to which I have tried to hold con- 
sistently has been that Latin American discussion ought 
now to be couched in the tone in which the discussion of 
European or American affairs is habitually carried on. 
The attitude of the cultured tourist observing strange 
phenomena in primitive lands is highly to be deprecated: 
and the sooner it is set aside in reports on Latin America, 
the better. 

Frequently, and perhaps tediously, throughout the book 
comparisons have been made with progress in the United 
States and with the gradual change of opinion in Europe, 
and particularly in England, concerning the resources and 
potentialities of the United States and the cultural and 
social evolution of the people of the United States. The 
essential unity of Latin American customs, manners, and 
morals with southern European customs, manners, and 



xii Preface 

morals has also been stressed. No doubt some of the argu- 
ments contain elements of weakness: and it would be too 
much to hope that the legitimate comparisons should now 
be accepted in toto or at their full value. Yet I can see 
no escape from employing approved historical methods of 
measurement in setting forth evidences of advancement in 
Latin America. What has been applied successfully to 
other countries should, it seems, be applicable to Latin 
America also. 

I have, in so far as I am aware, no special propaganda 
to further with regard to Latin America, though my belief 
in the desirability and necessity of inter-American friend- 
ship has not, I trust, failed to show itself unmistakably. 
I am not anxious, nevertheless, to condone the genuine 
faults, inconsistencies, or prejudices of the Latin American 
nations. I am persuaded that Latin Americans have the 
same number of merits and defects as other peoples: but 
I am positive, likewise, that they have no more. On the 
other hand, I am convinced that the general public of the 
United States has never sufficiently recognized the worthy 
qualities and accomplishments of their Latin American 
neighbors: and I am sure that what is well known and 
thoroughly familiar to thoughtful students of Latin Amer- 
ica will often appear surprising and almost incredible to 
the casual reader. 

During the preparation of the following pages, valuable 
assistance, which is here gratefully acknowledged, was re- 
ceived from the Pan American Union, the National City 
Bank of New York {Our South American Trade and Its 
Financing, by Frank O'Malley), the Guaranty Trust Com- 
pany of New York {Bank and Puhlic Holidays Throughout 
the World), the Bankers Trust Company, New York {List 
of Foreign Correspondents) , and Mr. Harry Weston Van 
Dyke, Washington, D. C, for lists of banking institutions 
in South America. The author acknowledges also his in- 
debtedness for material concerning Latin American news- 
papers to Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh 's Advertising for Trade 
in Latin- America, and to the Gotham Advertising Company. 

The trade statistics given in the Appendix are taken 



Preface xiii 

from figures published by the Pan American Union, Wash- 
ington, D. C, January, 1922. The figures for Latin Ameri- 
can trade given on pages 107, 108, and 109 are from an 
article in the South American, May, 1921, based on a Latin 
American trade circular issued by the United States De- 
partment of Commerce, April, 1921. On page 308 the 
figures for 1919 and 1920 are taken from the Commerce 
Report of the United, States Department of Commerce, 
AprH 6, 1921. 

I acknowledge with pleasure my indebtedness to Dean 
James E. LeRossignol of the College of Business Adminis- 
tration, and to Dean Philo M. Buck, Jr., of the College of 
Arts and Sciences, of the University of Nebraska, for their 
constant encouragement during the preparation of this 
book. 

J. W. 

May 20, 1922. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Pabt One 

CHAPTER I 

Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 1 

A Comparison with the United States— Five Common 
Misconceptions — Sympathetic Appreciation of Latin 
American Customs Important — Immense Size of Latin 
America a Permanent Reality — Transportation — Im- 
mense Coastlines — Superiority of Latin America in 
Water\yays— Water Falls and Water-Power— Grandeur 
of Latin American Mountain Scenery — Climate — The 
Negro Question— The Indian Question— Latin America 
not Effete — Examples of Latin American Energy — 
Latin American Magnitudes— Possibilities in Growth. 

CHAPTER II 

The End of Isolation 27 

Penetrating Forces— Shortening of Distances to Latin 
America — Emergence from Isolation — Increase in Ship- 
ping — Immigration — Transportation. 

CHAPTER III 

Changing Industries 53 

Agriculture and Mining— Agricultural Prodetivity— In- 
tensive Agriculture— Salient Industries— Cattle-raising 
in Argentina and Urugniay- New Fields for Cattle- 
raismg— Brazil a Coming Cattle Center— American 
Packers in Brazil— Latin America's Part in the Odyssey 
of Oil — Coal in Latin America — Lumber. 

CHAPTER IV 

Manufacturing and Labor 81 

Cotton-growing and Cotton-manufacturing in Brazil— 
Cotton-manufacturing in Argentina— Advent of the 
Manufacture of Rubber in Brazil— Future Manufac- 

XV 



xvi Contents 



PAGE 

turing Centers — Varied Manufactures of Brazil — New 
Manufacturing Projects in Brazil — Varied Manufac- 
tures of Mexico — Future of Manufacturing in Latin 
America — Changing Conditions of Labor — Labor Legis- 
lation — Protection of Children and Women in the In- 
dustries — Housing for Workingmen — Comparison with 
the United States in the Development of Industries. 

CHAPTER V 

Paramount Foreign Interests 107 

National Mobilization for Latin American Trade — Cap- 
turing Latin American Trade in the Past — British Con- 
fidence in Latin America — Latin American Trust in 
British Management — The German "Drive" in Latin 
America not Sinister — German Doctrine of "Service" — 
Germany "Coming Back" in Latin America — Weakness 
of Former American Methods — American Business- 
men Making a Gallant Fight — Disadvantages of Ship- 
ping in the Vessels of Competitors — Rapid Progress of 
American Shipping — ^American Banks in Latin America. 

CHAPTER VI 

The Monroe Doctrine 136 

The North American Peril — Latin American Notion of 
the Transformation of the Monroe Doctrine — Contra- 
dictory Applications of the Monroe Doctrine — Jus- 
tifiable Policy of the United States Toward the, 
Caribbean Countries — President Roosevelt's Interpreta- 
tion of the Monroe Doctrine — The Monroe Doctrine 
and the Trans-Caribbean Countries — The Monroe Doe- 
trine in Reality a Pan-American Doctrine — The Trans- 
Caribbean Countries Able to Solve Their Own Political 
Problems — Broadening of the Monroe Doctrine. 

CHAPTER VII 

International Rapprochement , . . . . . 158 
Foreign Antagonism to Pan American Leadership of the 
United States — Rapprochement Between Latin America 
and European Latin Countries — Rapprochement Among 
the Latin American Countries Themselves — Free Trade 
and Rapprochement — Political Confederation — Recent 
Establishment of the Republic of Central America — 
Antecedents, 



Contents xvii 

Part Two 
CHAPTER VIII 

FAQB 

The Growth of Nationalism 178 

Separatistie Tendencies — Brazil as a Distinct Nation — 
Historical Reasons for Lack of Solidarity Among the 
Spanish Countries of Latin America — Latin Americans 
not to be Confused with European Spaniards — Chief 
Factors in the Development of Individual National 
Spirit — Latin American Dictators as Contributors to 
Patriotism — Modern Methods of Inspiring Patriotism — 
Regionalistic Literature and Patriotism — The "Entente" 
Idea Supplanting the Idea of Confederation. 

CHAPTER IX 

Social Development ........ 204 

Foreign Influences on Latin American Social Usage — 
Physical Culture and Athletics — New Conception of 
Sanitation — Social "Movements" — Prohibition in Latin 
America — Housing and Prison Reform — Salvation 
Army, the Y. M. C. A., and the Y. W. C. A. in Latin 
America — The Transition from Individualism to Social 
Regulation. 

CHAPTER X 

Public Enlightenment and Education .... 227 
Public Education of Recent Date — Educational Zones — 
Educational Progressiveness of Argentina — Changing 
Ideals in Chilean Education — An Important Experi- 
ment in Mexico — Secondary Education in Latin Amer- 
ica — A Suggestion Concerning the Admission of Latin 
American Students to Our Universities — European 
Characteristics of Latin American Universities — Devel- 
opment of Normal Schools — Technical and Vocational 
Education — The People's University of Buenos Aires — 
Libraries, Newspapers, and Motion-Pictures as Educa- 
tional Agencies. 

CHAPTER XI 

Cultural Development 255 

Comparison with the Progress of American Literature — 
"Schools" in Latin American Literature — Andres Bello, 
Scholar and Poet — Sarmiento, the "Schoolmaster Presi- 
dent" — Ruben Dario, the Most Significant of Modern 
Spanish Poets — Latin American Painters — Modern Art 
in Mexico — Music and Drama — Science and Scholar- 
ship. 



xviii Contents 

CHAPTER XII 

PAoa 
The Position of Woman 279 

Southern European Antecedents of the Latin American 
Women — Effect of Example Set by American Women 
— Legal Status of the Latin American Woman — Or- 
ganized Feminism — Women Voters in Latin America — 
Different Means Employed by the American and the 
Latin American Woman — Social Factors in the 
Woman's Movement in Latin America — The Education 
of Woman — Vocational Education for Girls — The Peru- 
vian Society of Feminine Industry — The Profession of 
Teaching and the Dignity of Work — Women and the 
Eradication of Social Evils— The Child- Welfare Work 
of Latin American Women — Greater Freedom now Per- 
mitted Women in the Larger Cities. 



Pabt Theee 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Field op Opportunity in Latin America . . . 306 
Can We Hold This Trade? — Remarkable Expansion of 
American Investments in Latin America — Financial In- 
vestments Accompanied by Investment in Personnel — 
Americans Who Owe Their Fortunes to Latin America 
— Recent Successes of Large American Industrial Con- 
cerns in Latin America — Outstanding Opportunities for 
Men with Some Capital — European Department Stores 
in Latin America — Immigrants who Built up Fortunes 
in Latin America — Splendid Agricultural Opportunities 
for the "Average Man" — Colonization Conditions — 
Beneficial International Results of Colonization. 



CHAPTER XIV 

As Latin Americans See Us . ... . . . 333 

Why We Are "The Americans" — The European Legacy 
of Depreciation — A New Political View of the United 
States — American "Kultur" — Latin American Judgment 
of our Newspapers — Our Metropolitan Cities not a 
Fair Standard for American Life as a Whole — Dif- 
ference Between American and Latin American Intel- 
lectual Perspective — Mistaken Latin American Criticism 



Contents xix 



Due to Insufficient Knowledge — Difference in the 
Genius of American and Latin American Journalism — 
Susceptibility of Latin Americans to Acts of Courtesy 
— Customs and Manners Distasteful to Latin Ameri- 
cans and Europeans — Seriousness of Our Ignorance of 
Latin America — A Defect in Our Educational System. 

Appendix .... - 359 

Useful Information — Postal Information — Distances to 
Principal Ports — Credit Conditions — Branches of Amer- 
ican Banks — Principal Banks. 

Bibliography op Recent Books 399 

Index . 403 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Bay and City of Rio de Janeiro prom Summit of 

CoBCOVADO . . • Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

BoTAFOGO Bay, Harbor of Rio de Janeiro .... 12 
"The Soldier's Leap" — Gorge in the Andes, Across 

which One of O'Higgins's Cavalry Leaped His 

Horse to Escape the Royalists 16 

Avenue of Royal Palms, Rio Botanical Gardens . . 24 

AvENiDA Central, Rio de Janeiro 24 

A Coffee Plantation, Venezuela — Drying the Bean . 53 
Prize Winners from "The Camp " (Argentina) , . 58 

Coffee Plantation, Brazil 90 

Plaza Mayor, Lima 104 

Scene on the Oroya Railway (Peru) . . . . 115 

Statue of Bolivar, Lima 170 

Iguazu Falls, where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina 

Meet 194 

Jockey Club's Grandstand at the Race Track (Buenos 

Aires) 210 

SoLis Theater, Montevideo 256 

Cagancha Plaza, Montevideo . 256 

Col6n Theater, Buenos Aires 278 

Federal Capitol, Buenos Aires 278 

Shrine of Our Lady of Capacabana, on Bolivian Shore 

OF Lake Titicaca 329 

Town and Mountain of Potosi, Bolivia , ... . 329 

MAPS 
South America 358 

Central America 374 

Communications and Commercial Languages of America 384 

Mexico 398 

xxi 



The New Latin America 



PART I 

CHAPTER I 

FALLACIES, FANCIES, AND FACTS 

The beginning of the twentieth century is witnessing 
something like a cosmopolitan attempt at a second con- 
quest of Latin America. Foreign governments and indi- 
viduals appear to be engaged in keen rivalry for the 
favors of the vast "backward" countries of Spanish and 
Portuguese America possessed of incalculable natural 
wealth and characterized by a genuinely extraordinary 
purchasing power. Official and unofficial overtures look- 
ing toward increased commercial and cultural relations 
are being made with courteous and flattering insistence,,^ 

In recent years, and particularly during the past six 
or eight years, the visits of "ambassadors of good- will" 
to Latin America have followed one another in rapid 
succession. Secretary Root, Secretary Knox, Secretary 
Colby, Senator Burton, Robert Bacon, ex-president 
Roosevelt, Viscount Bryce, M. Clemenceau, General 
Mangin, ex-minister Andrea Torre of Italy, Paul Fort, 
the French poet, a Spanish infanta, and numerous British, 
French, Italian, German, Belgian, Japanese, and American 
missions have journeyed to various Latin American coun- 
tries in a more than personal capacity, and the King of 
Spain is expected in South America as soon as internal 
aflEairs in the Peninsula permit his projected tour, 



2 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

The twentieth century conquest, as contrasted with that 
of the sixteenth century, is one of peace and friendship. 
No kidnapping of Aztec or Inca emperors, no enslavement 
of superstitious Indians, no seizure of territories is con- 
templated. Nations whose good-will must be won by 
complex pacific means have grown up in the former free 
and easy paradise of the Conquistadores. 

European governments have for some scores of years 
realized that Latin America has undergone a remarkable 
change in the course of four centuries. To the average 
American, however, Latin America has remained terra 
incognita. Even our leaders in thought and politics have 
not until lately grasped the significance of Latin America, 
and not then in any adequate manner until convinced by 
ocular demonstration. 

"I believe," declared Theodore Roosevelt in 1914, while 
on his South American expedition, ''that the present 
century is the century of South; America." 

Eight years before, Mr. Root, habitually less emphatic, 
but not less foresighted, had expressed the same idea. 

At a banquet that was given last winter to a great and dis- 
tinguished man. Lord Grey, Governor-General of Canada, he 
said: "The nineteenth century was the century of the United 
States; the twentieth century will be the century of Canada." I 
should feel surer as a prophet if I were to say: "The twentieth 
century will be the century of South America." I believe, with 
him, in the gi'eat development of Canada; but just as the nine- 
teenth century was the century of phenomenal development in 
North America, I believe that no student can help seeing that 
the twentieth century will be the century of phenomenal develop- 
ment in South America, 

The man whose reading on Latin America stopped with 
his schoolboy days has probably not the faintest inkling 
of the role now being played by Latin America in the 
world at large. The Latin American republics have, 
within a brief space, "completely marched off the map," 
in the words of Mr. Root, just as the German armies had 
marched off the newly revised German maps a fortnight 
after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. 
^ The Latin America of our school geographies was a 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 3 

vast primitive tract overrun by jaguars, boa constrictors, 
tapirs, llamas, monkeys, parrots, and condors,' and 
sparsely inhabited by picturesque gauchos, stolid Indians, 
and indolent peons. That this Latin America has, of 
course, not entirely ceased to exist, goes without saying. 
Scatter some 80,000,000 people over a territory of about 
8,000,000 square miles, and the difficulty of taming this 
enormous area to civilized uses becomes clear. 

But the primeval wilds of the Latin America of to-day 
are not the primeval wilds of our schoolboy geographies. 
Their conquest has moved on much more rapidly during 
the past forty years or less than during the preceding 
four centuries. Industrial needs, railroads, and highways 
have not merely been nibbling at them: they have been 
devouring them. 

A COMPARISON WITH THE UNITED STATES .--^ 

In order to realize how this may be, we must set our- 
selves back in our own history to about the year 1880. In 
1880 our population was 50,155,783 and the number of 
miles of railroad operated was 93,267. To-day our popu- 
lation is 106,389,246 and our railroad mileage totals 264,- 
233 miles. In 1880 our exports amounted to $835,638,658 
and our imports, to $667,954,746. To-day our exports 
and imports have reached the colossal figures of $8,111,- 
039,733 and $5,238,621,668 respectively. These changes 
have taken place during the past forty years. 

Now, approximately forty years — ^to be exact, forty- 
three years — marks the lead which we have had over 
Latin America in free self-development, unshackled by 
the repressive fetters of a monarchical government. The 
decisive battle of the Revolutionary War, that of York- 
town, took place in 1781. Reckoning from that date, we 
were ninety-nine years old in independence in 1880. The 
decisive battle for Latin American independence was 
fought at Ayacucho, Peru, in 1824. To-day, in 1921, Latin 
America is ninety-seven years old in inde;t;»endence. At 
ninety-nine, we had attained the expansion detailed above 
for the year 1880. At ninety-seven, Latin America has a 



Fallacies^ Fancies, and Facts 



population of approximately 80,000,000 and a foreign com- 
merce of more than $5,000,000,000. 

Considering the resources of Latin America and such 
conditions as the restriction of immigration into the 
United States, the focusing of the attention of all the 
great nations on Latin American exploitation, and the 
fact that we are in the full swing of the technological 
era, it is fair to assume that in forty more years, when 
Latin America shall have reached our present age, her 
development , will have assumed something of the huge 
proportions on which we are accustomed to pride our- 
selves. Looking forward the remaining eighty years of 
the present century, the prospect seems even more impres- 
sive, and Messrs. Roosevelt and Root appear moderate 
historians rather than prophetic visionaries. 
" Comparisons and conclusions of this sort may sound 
bold and unwarranted to readers to whom Latin America 
is still an unknown land. The comparisons, however, are 
based on facts, and the conclusions do not conflict with 
the logic of past history. To those who watch the on- 
ward steps, which are commonplace and almost imper- 
ceptible as they occur from day to day, but imposing 
in the aggregate, the predictions made by Theodore 
Roosevelt, Viscount Bryce, and General Rafael Reyes con- 
cerning the future of Latin America seem quite devoid 
of extravagance. Let any man of forty odd years of 
age hark back to 1880, when our population was fifty 
million and our foreign trade a billion and a half dollars 
and honestly ask himself if he expected to see our popu- 
lation mount to over 100,000,000 and our foreign com- 
merce to over $13,000,000,000 by the time he had barely 
reached middle age I 

Statistics, while invaluable, rarely tell the whole story. 
They are not sufficiently descriptive. Were Latin America 
only as large as the United States, its expansion, though 
remarkable, would present to-day but an ordinary appeal 
to the imagination. Discounting the Chilean and 
Peruvian deserts and the considerable extent of moun- 
t?iin-land over the entire length of South America, which 



Fallacies f Fancies^ and Facts S 

is practically unsuitable for human habitation, we should 
be able to augur nothing startling for the future of Latin 
America. We should feel that it could do no more than 
progress at an average rate. As soon, however, as we 
visualize its immense size and take into account a few 
of its natural resources and wonders and a small number 
of the achievements of its people, we are apt to be ready- 
to admit its potentialities and to marvel that anybody 
should doubt them. 

"Nine days we were sailing along the Brazilian coast 
line!" exclaimed Secretary Colby at a banquet in New 
York in 1921. ''Think of what that means!" (The trip 
had been made in a great American battleship.) This 
fact had astounded Secretary Colby as much as the dis- 
covery that Brazil is 200,000 square miles greater in 
extent than the forty-eight states of the Union — a cir- 
cumstance of which he had been "in blissful ignorance" 
until very recently. If a Secretary of State may ex- 
perience such surprises, what must be the case of the 
general public, whose business does not force it to know 
a great deal about foreign countries? 

If through nothing else, Latin America should awakeil 
strong admiration in us by reason of its magnificent 
natural magnitudes, for we are more susceptible to the 
charm of magnitudes than any other nation on earth. 
Once the American people becomes convinced that Latin 
America rivals the United States in many natural re- 
sources and in many works achieved by the hand and 
the brain of Latin Americans, its prevalent belief in the 
inferiority of Latin America will undergo a significant 
and needed alteration. 

FIVE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS 

Unfortunately for Latin America, our appreciation is 
almost indelibly colored by traditional notions of its in- 
feriority. Ignorance plays a prominent part in these 
notions, but several unjustifiable misconceptions are 
mainly responsible for them. 

1. To-day we look upon Spain as a decadent nation — 



6 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

a thoroughly erroneous view. Because the fortunes of 
Latin America were so long linked with those of Spain, 
and because our war with Spain made the once famous 
empire of Philip II seem ridiculous and insignificant, we 
assume that nothing good can come out of Hispanic 
countries. 

2. Mexicans, Porto Ricans, Bolivians, Brazilians, Argen- 
tinians are lumped together by us indiscriminately as 
"natives." The use of the term "native" is alone 
responsible for a strong sense of superiority on our part. 
To say "native" is to classify Latin Americans with 
untutored African savages. "Natives" there are in Latin 
America: but they are in the negligible minority and 
do not represent Latin America any more than our few 
"native" Indians represent us. 

3. Moral conditions are unduly stressed by many 
authors, some of whom are or have been missionaries. 
But Latin America is not a sink of iniquity — unless we 
so regard France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal, from whom 
the Latin Americans derive their conception of morality. 
Latin American morals are nothing more nor less than 
European Latin morals, and European Latins like M. 
Clemenceau have no comment to make on them. 

4. To the lay mind, Latin America is unsafe because 
of its revolutions. Yet its revolutions are in no way com- 
parable with our Revolutionary War or our War of Seces- 
sion. In most instances they have been simply the clash- 
ing of two leaders with a handful of followers, and have 
been no more destructive than our railroad or automobile 
accidents. "No Viceroy of Brazil, no King and no Presi- 
dent," is the pertinent comment of Miss Lilian E. Elliott 
in Brazil Today and Tomorrow, "has been assassinated 
in the history of the country." The once popular method 
of electing by bullets rather than by ballots is now an 
anachronism and is sure to disappear totally as outside 
pressure increases through investments, immigration, and 
international relations. 

5. The north, the south, the east, and the west of Latin 
America are as yet all one to us. We refuse to acknowl- 



Fallacies, Fancies^ and Facts 7 

edge differentiation. Nevertheless, the Mexican is no more 
like the inhabitant of Santo Domingo than the latter is 
like the Argentinian, thousands of miles away in the south 
temperate zone. The dominant racial traits of the con- 
quering Spaniards persist, it is true, practically intact and 
lend a real social unity to Spanish America, but immigra- 
tion and a variable rate of progress have brought about 
marked differences in the several republics, and it is be- 
coming increasingly necessary to speak of Argentinians, 
Uruguayans, Peruvians, Colombians, Costa Ricans rather 
than of Latin Americans en masse. -"^ 

SYMPATHETIC APPRECIATION OF LATIN AMERICAN 
CUSTOMS IMPORTANT 

Probably the most important factor in our intercourse 
with Latin Aoierjca will be the willingness to accept Latin 
American customs, manners, and morals as equivalent to 
our own. That we can do so in a hurry or with any degree 
of sincerity is, perhaps, too much to expect. Only an 
infinitesimal fraction of our population will ever come in 
direct contact with Latin Americans until we emigrate 
in large numbers to the Latin American republics or Latin 
Americans flock to our shores — either of which alternatives 
is remote, though the second more so than the first. Most 
of us are stay-at-homes; our ethical dogmas are fixed and 
uncompromising; and Anatole France's observation to the 
effect that souls are impenetrable to one another applies 
to us with peculiar appropriateness. Unless travelers, 
books, and newspapers make a practice of treating Latin 
American customs fairly and sympathetically, and not with 
Pharisaical sneering, we shall be as great strangers to 
Latin America at the end of the century, no matter how 
much business we may do with it, as we are now. 

The role of moral censor is at best a precarious task, 
especially among peoples whose religion, civilization, and 
traditions are older than our own. There has been no 
conspicuous American attempt at reforming ?^rench habits, 
except in the substitution of the American bar for the 
French bar, and it cannot be repeated often enough that 



8 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

Latin American and French or Italian or Spanish customs 
and manners are one and the same thing. The usual 
American chapter on Latin American morals is a distinct 
evil and an encouragement to unfriendliness. Our books 
and periodicals are read and reviewed in Latin America, 
and no subject gives so much steady offense as our super- 
ficial obiter dicta on morals and manners. 

In general, in our present state of knowledge concerR-? 
ing Latin America, we shall not greatly err in stressing 
the progress of to-day rather than the stagnation of 
yesterday, excellences rather than defects, hopeful rather 
than hopeless signs. However much this may smack of 
shoddy — and much shoddy has been written about Latin 
America — it is the only profitable and gracious direction 
to take for the time being. "With fuller knowledge may 
come deeper appreciation, and with appreciation, only: 
useful criticism. 

Eare indeed [as Mr. A. H. Verrill suggests], is the North 
American who adapts himself to Latin-American conditions in 
such a way as to retain his self-respect and the respect of the 
natives; but when we do find such men we find no contempt 
for the Latin Americans, no patronizing or overbearing manners, 
no complaints, but instead, praise of many things, criticism of 
few, and an ever-increasing love of Latin America and its people. 

Leaving preconceptions aside, it is well to examine in 
an impartial manner some of the outstanding natural and 
social features of Latin America. 

IMMENSE SIZE OF LATIN AMERICA A PERMANENT REALITY 

The most prominent and permanent feature of Latin 
America is its immense size. Without an adequate com- 
prehension of the extent of territory covered by the 
various republics, it is impossible to surmise their capacity 
in agriculture, industry, and population. Too often the 
mistake is made of picturing these countries as states, in 
the North American sense of the term. We are more than 
liable, for instance, when thinking of Brazil, to lay it 
over our mental image of Texas; when visualizing Chile, 
to put it in juxtaposition with California; when looking 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 9 

at Uruguay, to compare it with Ehode Island: and that, 
for the simple reason that Texas is our largest state and 
Brazil, the largest country in South America; California 
our longest state on the west coast, and Chile the longest 
country on the west coast of South America; Rhode 
Island our smallest state, and Uruguay the smallest 
country in South America. 

This order of visualization is easy to understand and 
most difficult to combat. It will take years, perhaps 
scores of them, to rectify the faulty conception which we 
have of the magnitude of the Latin American republics. 
Since we cannot speak of empires — a term which denotes 
great size and actually distinguished Brazil in dimensions 
from the other Latin American republics — we ought at 
least to popularize the use of the word ** country" as a 
generic term for the Latin American republics instead 
of the word ** republic." A republic may be as diminutive 
as San Marino or Andorra, whereas a "country" stands 
for something considerable. Very few of the Latin 
American countries correspond in size to our states. They 
are in most cases vastly larger. They are "countries." 

Brazil, as is quite generally known, is larger than the 
whole United States exclusive of Alaska. It could con- 
tain within its boundaries not only all the forty-eight 
states of the Union, but in addition another state of the 
size of Texas or four more states of the size of New York. 
In other words, Brazil has an area 200,000 square miles 
greater than that of the entire United States proper and 
very little less than that of all Europe. If it were as 
densely populated as France, it would shelter 622,000,000 
people, and, if as densely populated as Germany, 955,- 
000,000, according to estimates which have been made. 
Chile, which appears so narrow, and therefore small, on 
the map, would hold two states of the size of California 
or four states of the size of Nebraska, and is actually 
larger than any country in Europe except Russia. Mexico 
would have no trouble in covering "Wisconsin Nebraska, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, 
Kansas, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, North Dakota, and 



10 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

South Dakota, or fourteen of the by no means smallest 
of our states. Even "little" Costa Eica would have room, 
and to spare, for New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecti- 
cut, and Paraguay could encompass Indiana four times 
over. Portugal would rattle around freely in Hondm-as, 
and Belgium expanded to three times its size would still 
fall short of coinciding with all the edges of that Central 
American country; Colombia could embrace Germany, 
France, Holland, and Belgium together; and countries of 
the combined areas of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, 
Spain, Belgium, Germany, Norway, and Sweden could be 
carved out of Argentina, with just about enough left 
over to fit Connecticut and Delaware nicely into the re- 
jnaining space. 

The other countries of Latin America being propor- 
tionately extensive and for the most part inhabitable, 
there is not the slightest exaggeration in foreseeing that, 
in the course of a few centuries, the Hispanic New World 
will be contemplating its northern brother, the United 
States, from a great height — ^provided, of course, that tre- 
mendous changes do not occur in the meantime. 

According to Mulhall, the population of Europe hardly 
exceeded 50,000,000 before the fifteenth century. It is 
now over 460,000,000. The population of Latin America 
to-day is about 80,000,000. The area of Latin America 
(over 8,000,000 square miles) is considerably more than 
twice that of Europe (3,754,282 square miles) and larger 
than the area occupied by any other homogeneous group 
of peoples in the world. A forward-looking nation like 
ours cannot fail to see the plain moral and the obvious 
duty. Latin America is sure to grow on us and cannot, 
without regrettable results, be overlooked. 

Size, by itself, it goes without saying, is relatively unim- 
portant unless helped out by other conditions favorable 
to human welfare. Arid deserts and unproductive moun- 
tains stretching for millions of miles would signify little 
for the progress of mankind in the present state of our 
needs and our ability to use what Nature has placed at 
our disposal. Latin America certainly has its share of 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 11 

such lands, but is remarkably fortunate in that its per- 
centage of useless territory is comparatively small. 

Deserts it has, totally bereft of vegetation, but from 
these deserts come the nitrates which have fertilized and 
fructified large portions of the globe. From its moun- 
tains have been extracted untold riches, and mines like 
that of Potosi in Bolivia, from which between 2,000,- 
000,000 and 3,000,000,000 ounces of silver have been taken, 
continue to supply much of the output of the precious 
metals of the world. Mexico still leads in the production 
of silver, and Peru, in that of vanadium. Bolivia is one 
of the chief sources of tin ; Chile, of copper ; and Brazil, 
of the precious stones. According to a recent govern- 
ment report, the iron deposits of Brazil are estimated at 
4,000,000,000 tons, and what other mineral wealth lies 
unexploited and even unexplored in the mountains of 
Brazil for want of transportation facilities nobody can 
even guess at as yet. 

TRANSPORTATION 

The question of transportation is so vital in un- 
developed countries housing large stores of natural 
resources that it may be regarded as the key to Latin 
American progress. Without adequate transportation, 
raw materials remain at their source and commerce fails 
to move with the necessary freedom and volume. For 
the next fifty or one hundred years, Latin America will 
find its strength heavily taxed to provide sufficient rail- 
road, highway, and water facilities for the transportation 
of the immense supplies which it will be called upon to 
furnish to an overpopulated world leaning on it more 
and more for the necessities of life. Its railroads and 
highways must be made, and their extension will unques- 
tionably rest chiefly on the investment of foreign capital 
and on the further discovery and working of coal and 
oil, the former of which, though not now known to exist 
in excessive quantities, is nevertheless mined on a pay- 
ing basis in a number of countries between Mexico and 
Chile, and the latter of which already shows dazzling 
prospects. Its waterways present less numerous prob- 



12 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

lems, for Nature has distributed them over all parts of 
Latin America in admirable profusion. The possibilities 
for coastwise and river trade are scarcely surpassed else- 
where. 

EXTENSIVE COASTLINES 

The length of the coastlines of the Latin American coun- 
tries is usually not grasped by Americans because of the 
almost universal tendency to measure by our oAvn country. 
Probably few persons realize that Mexico has nearly six 
thousand miles of coast — about 4200 on the Pacific and 
1600 on the Atlantic. Brazil alone has five thousand 
miles of coast. Laid across the Atlantic, this coastline 
would extend from Boston to Liverpool, and superimposed 
on the margin of North America, it would stretch from 
New Orleans to the northern extremity of Labrador. The 
influence of this coastline, facing Europe, on the same 
side of the hemisphere as the majority of our cities which 
ship manufactures and require huge amounts of raw 
materials, and possessed of the finest harbor in the world 
at Rio de Janeiro, cannot be overdrawn with respect to 
maritime trade and naval growth. Argentina, likewise, 
favored by a coastline of surprising length which, if 
moved north, would have its termini at Key West, Florida, 
and Halifax, Nova Scotia, enjoys equal advantages with 
Brazil and has become the objective of most of the steam- 
ship lines of the world. Even Chile has a coastline about 
three thousand miles long and feels that its position is 
forcing it into paths of maritime prowess and expansion. 

In its external means of communication by water, Latin 
America is, indeed, favored above other geographical 
divisions. Each nation except Bolivia has an ample sea- 
board; the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico con- 
stitute a veritable American Mediterranean, open to com- 
merce at all seasons of the year; and the Panama Canal 
facilitates traffic from all corners of the globe to either 
side of the North American and South American republics 
and from the Orient to the Antilles. Thus far the settle- 
ment and the social history of Latin America have been 
determined principally by these maritime factors. Its 




Copyright, 1911, by W. D. Boyce. 



BOTAFOGO BAY, HAI 
Photograph used by courtesy of Mr, 




>F RIO DE JANEIRO. 

Joyce and the Pan American Union. 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 13 

future development, too, will depend largely on these 
natural advantages. 

SUPERIORITY OP LATIN AMERICA EN WATERWAYS 

For purposes of internal commerce, Latin America is 
extraordinarily well equipped with navigable rivers. It 
has also some navigable lakes of importance. Lake 
Titicaca, the most elevated inland body of water in the 
world, with an area of 3220 square miles, is traversed 
by numerous steamships which traffic with the many 
towns and villages of the fertile country lying along its 
shores; Lake Chapala, in Mexico, between the States of 
Jalisco and Michoacan, is 51 miles long and 18 miles wide, 
and has become a fashionable summer resort ; and south- 
ern Chile is favored with a beautiful lake region, includ- 
ing Lake Llanquihue — ^which has an area of about 660 
square miles — comparable for picturesqueness and climate 
with the lake regions of England and Switzerland. How- 
ever, Latin America has no inland bodies of water of 
the significance of our Great Lakes. 

But in fluvial waterways Latin America stands pre- 
eminent. The Amazon, the Rio de la Plata, the Orinoco, 
and the Magdalena form a system so extensive that one 
can go by boat nearly the whole length of South America 
with practically no portage. Many of these arteries 
amount to extensions of the ocean into the heart of the 
interior countries and spread out in all directions in a 
vast network of infinite ramifications. 

The Magdalena, the Cauca, the Meta, and the Putumayo 
of Colombia — the last-mentioned of which has a length 
of 932 miles, flows through a rich region of gold, cacao, 
and rubber, serves as a means of communication with 
Brazil, and was only within recent times opened up 
through the explorations of General Rafael Reyes — are 
vast rivers crossing the entire country and joined by 
innumerable tributaries. 

The river-system of Brazil as pointed out by Mr. 
Domville-Fife, 
is truly magnificent, the great Amazon alone affording 3,000 miles 



14 Fallacies J Fancies, and Facts 

of fluvial navigation, and having three tributaries of over 600 
miles in length and fourteen others, some of which are navigable 
for river steamers for a distance of over 1,000 miles. . . . Besides 
the great network of water-ways known as the Amazon, Brazil 
possesses thirty-two rivers of minor importance, which flow 
through all parts of the country, and afford means of communica- 
tion with the surrounding foreign States. 

The total length of the Amazon is more than 3800 miles, 
and some notion of its volume and force may be gathered 
from the fact that its v^^aters color the Atlantic for a 
distance of over 100 miles and freshen the salt v^^ater of 
the ocean to a point 180 miles beyond its mouth. The 
Rio Theodoro, named after Theodore Roosevelt — the 
famous River of Doubt — is no inconsiderable stream, 
either, for it courses over a space of 950 miles. 

Excepting for the Missouri-Mississippi, our rivers are 
small and tew when contrasted with the wealth of usable 
waterways in South America. 

Besides the Parana and the Uruguay, more than forty 
rivers of lesser importance water the fertile tracts of 
Argentina. Chile, whose breadth varies from 40 to 200 
miles, suffers from no dearth of rivers in spite of its 
narrow width, its northern deserts, and its cold regions 
in the extreme south. Nearly thirty rivers of fair size 
cross the country in different directions, and the largest, 
the Biobio, of some 220 miles in length, is two miles wide 
at its entrance into the Pacific and permits small steamers 
to sail a distance of 100 miles from its mouth. 

WATERFALLS AND WATER-POWER 

Incidentally, and as a priceless by-product of water 
resources, some portions of Latin America are enriched 
by waterfalls whose future usefulness cannot be over- 
estimated. The most notable instance is Brazil. At the 
meeting-point of the frontier of Brazil, Argentina, and 
Paraguay, surrounded by secular forests, roar the foam- 
ing cascades of the Iguazti Falls, higher by fifty feet than 
the Niagara Falls and 1250 feet greater in lateral dimen- 
sions. The Sete Quedas or Guayra Falls, on the frontier 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 15 

of Paraguay, have an estimated force of 80,000,000 horse- 
power, and other falls are correspondingly high in energy. 
Cities, towns, and even villages, which otherwise might 
continue in medieval darkness, now enjoy the latest elec- 
trical improvements in consequence of their nearness to 
some of these waterfalls, and public utility corporations 
have released power often unavailable in the ordinary 
way because of the scarcity or the prohibitive cost of 
coal. 

Data such as' these suggest the part to be played by 
waterways and water-power in Latin America. They in- 
dicate that railroads and highways need not be depended 
upon solely, though it is only by the joint use of all 
these modes of locomotion that the boundless resources 
of Latin America can be fully developed. But when ocean 
steamers from New York and Liverpool can reach 
Iquitos, Peru, 1800 miles up the Amazon from Para, 
Brazil, long and expensive railroad connections are often 
not absolutely indispensable. The number of cities and 
towns served by boat is much larger than most of us 
suspect, for thriving centers, of whose names we never 
hear mention, lie along these routes and constitute depots 
for European and American goods. In Chile, many of 
the rivers of small carrying power perform a different, 
but equally beneficial, function in bringing to plains 
naturally sterile the alluvial deposits and moisture which 
transform them into fruitful garden-spots. 

GRANDEUR OF LATIN AMERICAN MOUNTAIN SCENERY 

The mountains of Latin America are likewise invaluable 
social assets. In themselves, and as objects of nature, 
they cannot help stirring the imagination by their 
grandeur. Aconcagua, rearing its snowy peak to the 
nearly incomparable altitude of more than 23,000 feet 
between Argentina and Chile; the twenty stupendous 
crests of the Avenue of Volcanoes in Eeuadoi-, all of which 
are higher than Pike's Peak; Misti, of the perfect cone 
(over 18,000 feet), and Sarasara (19,500 feet) in Peru; 



16 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

lUampu (21,470 feet) and lUimani (21,040 feet) in 
Bolivia ; and the lofty table-lands extending from Mexico 
to Chile must awaken respect in admirers of the sublime 
and cause them to share the wonder of Mr. Frederick 
Church, the celebrated painter, who characterized this 
mountain scenery as the grandest in the world. 

Tourist travel, which is an important economic benefit 
to many privileged lands and the mainstay of whole cities 
and the surrounding country, as, for example, in Colorado 
and Switzerland, will unquestionably in the course of time 
turn toward the scenic splendors of Latin America. 

But the mountains of Latin America have an even more 
direct economic and social bearing. Besides holding much 
of the mineral wealth of the world, they multiply the 
variety of agricultural products and diversify the climate 
in a manner rarely understood in the United States. 

CLIMATE 

Climate throughout the major portion of Latin America 
is, so to speak, vertical, not horizontal. If the type of 
climate depended entirely on latitude, the fallacious be- 
lief that few of the countries are "white men's countries" 
might seem plausible. Because South America lies to the 
south of us, the average American normally regards it 
as a uniformly torrid region. Schoolday preconceptions 
exert on the untraveled and the unanalytic a power 
as immovable as the dead hand of the past. To counter- 
balance usually superficial impressions, it should be pos- 
sible to represent geographical facts by some such means 
as the juxtaposition, let us say, of South America in 
reversed form at the side of North America so as to show 
graphically the true conditions and relationships. 

Ecuador, the land of the equator, should, according to 
map appearances, be one of the most tropical countries 
in the world. In reality, because of its physical configura- 
tion, Ecuador supports all the products of all the zones, 
from the tropical to the glacial : and one may stand in 
certain places and contemplate sugar-cane, potatoes, 




See page 125. 
'THE SOLDIER'S LEAP" — GORGE IN THE ANDES, ACROSS WHICH ONE 
OF O'HIGGINSS CAVALRY LEAPED HIS HORSE TO ESCAPE 
THE ROYALISTS. 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 17 

barley, and wheat growing simultaneously, according as 
one lets the eye ascend to the higher mountain-lands. The 
average temperature of Ecuador — which is much lower 
than might be expected — is 79 degrees Fahrenheit as a 
maximum in the coast region, but in the Inter-Andean 
region it becomes 58 degrees. Bogota, the capital of 
Colombia, has a temperature ranging between 58 and 60 
degrees Fahrenheit. Four hours distant by train, the 
temperature averages 86 degrees, and the most exotic 
fruits of the torrid zone flourish. In the market-places 
of Bogota, bananas, pineapples, yams, alligator-pears are 
displayed side by side with fresh garden-truck of the 
temperate highlands, potatoes, peas, peaches, apples, 
strawberries, and the common cereals, just as at La Paz, 
Bolivia, llamas laden with ice from the mountains are 
often seen close by mules from the lowlands laden with 
oranges and other tropical fruits. It is as if Indiana and 
Maine were superimposed on Florida or Cuba. 

Evidently the much talked-of ''white man's land" is 
rarely far to seek in Latin America, even where tropical 
conditions predominate. Beginning with the southern 
half of Brazil, the characteristics of the south temperate 
zone prevail. In the table-lands of the southern states, 
snow is frequent, a coating of ice may form on the lakes 
and ponds, and the thermometer may fall to the freezing- 
point. This occurs not only in the State of Rio Grande 
do Sul, but also in the States of Parana, Santa Catharina 
and Sao Paulo, further north, where the average tem- 
perature away from the coast is 68 degrees: and the fact 
will no doubt surprise the average American. Rio Grande 
do Sul is, indeed, noted for its excellent, equable climate, 
and Mr. Roger Babson, in The Future of South America, 
repeatedly expresses admiration for the climate and agri- 
cultural advantages of this most southerly of the Brazilian 
states. An idea of the kind and quantity of crops of the 
temperate zone raised in Rio Grande do Sul may be obtained 
from these figures published for 1919 by the United States 
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce : 



18 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 



Products Metric tons 

Corn 1,632,000 

Vegetables 420,000 

Herva Mate 171,000 

Wheat 108,000 

Beans 121,000 

Mandioca 155,000 

Sweet potatoes .... 180,000 

Irish potatoes 83,600 



Products Metric tons 

Rice 152,000 

Pumpkins 75,000 

Sugar cane 31,500 

Tobacco 15,250 

Wine 45,000 

Alfalfa 176,000 

Fruits 400,000 



Farther south, the climatic conditions are as a rule 
those of our more northerly states, with the difference that 
extreme cold is rare except at the lower extremity of the 
continent and that the temperature is generally Californian 
in quality. Here, the horizontal distance from the equator 
is the determining factor, and not the vertical elevation, 
as at La Paz, Quito, Bogota, Caracas, and Mexico City, the 
five highest capitals in the world, rising from a distinctly 
tropical base. The climate of Uruguay is most like that 
of Italy, two-thirds of the days being sunny, and explains 
in part enthusiastic declarations such as that uttered by 
Dr. J. A. Zahm, Roosevelt's companion in South America 
and the originator of that remarkable expedition: 

California is justly famed as a fiowerland. So is the French 
Riviera, but I have never seen in either of these favored regions 
of Flora such gorgeous displays of bloom as I have witnessed 
in and around Uruguay's magnificent capital. 

Across the continent, Chile raises melons oftentimes 
weighing twenty pounds, peaches weighing nearly a pound, 
Tacna watermelons as fine as the luscious Georgia article, 
zapallos — a kind of pumpkin — weighing from 75 to 100 
pounds and sometimes as high as 215 pounds, pears, 
quinces, apricots, apples, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, 
tomatoes, artichokes, potatoes, and the like. The "Irish" 
potato, it may be observed, is now generally accepted as 
having originated in the Andean highlands of Chile, where 
it is often frozen hard and kept indefinitely, being then 
known as chuno. As pleasant in climate as Uruguay and 
some parts of Chile is a great deal of Paraguay, including 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 19 

the practically uninhabited Gran Chaco, whose climate has 
been likened to a perpetual Mediterranean spring. 

These are "white men's" lands beyond the peradventure 
of a doubt, and "white men" from Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and Russia, 
whom the enervating comforts of "modern improvements" 
do not deter, are gradually taking them up. 

THE NEGRO QUESTION 

The average American has a fixed idea that Latin 
America as a whole is a region of "black brethren" or at 
best, "little brown brothers," prone to the philosophy of 
manana (to-morrow), and ever willing to put up with mds 
o menos (more or less). That Latin America is not "black" 
or even "red" and that Latin Americans are in reality 
industrious and hard-working will undoubtedly strike the 
American public as two notions conjured up by an over- 
zealous imagination. They are, nevertheless, true. 

The negro problem, as we know it, does not exist in 
Latin America. 

In the first place, in the tropical and subtropical north- 
ern section of Latin America, where negroes are numerous, 
the European Latin freedom from racial prejudice makes 
it possible for the white and the black races to live in 
amity and to intermingle. In northern Brazil, particularly, 
the doctrine is popular that the fusion of the races is result- 
ing in a nation better adapted to its New World environ- 
ment: and certain it is that many of the most eminent 
Brazilian statesmen, artists, and men of letters have had 
a marked negro strain. This does not mean, however, that 
the color line is not drawn at all, for there are social circles 
in the countries most liberal toward negroes in which the 
appearance of a negro or a mulatto would be regarded 
as a profanation. But by and large, and as a result of 
the European Latin attitude toward miscegenation, and 
not because the Latin American feeling is peculiarly 
uncritical, northern Latin America is tolerant of the negro 
and has avoided the tension and the repugnance which are 
so noticeable jn Anglo-Saxon America, 



20 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

In the second place, negroes are not a significant element 
in the greater part of Latin America. Southern 'Brazil has 
never had a larger proportion of negroes than our north- 
ern States and probably never will. There are practically 
no negroes in that most enterprising of Brazilian States, Sao 
Paulo. There are few negroes in Chile, where strict immi- 
gration laws ban them along with the Chinese. The negro 
is virtually non-existent in Argentina and Uruguay, as 
well as in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Eica. Nor 
is he a factor in Mexico. Many a southern or western 
South American, accustomed to conditions in his own 
country, has not been able to hide his astonishment at the 
heavy negro population of our southern States. 

The absence of negroes from those Latin American coun- 
tries in which they have failed to gain a foothold is due, 
it need hardly be said, to historical reasons rather than to 
foresight or prejudice. It should be added, too, that 
wherever the negro is found in Latin America he is, as 
may be expected, usually more Latin in his traits than 
negro and often not distinguishable, except by his color, 
from his white countrymen. 

THE INDIAN QUESTION 

The Indian population in some countries does, to be 
sure, present something of a problem, but it is, in our 
eyes, of quite a distinct nature from the negro problem. 
Brazil still has within its borders about 1,300,000 
Indians; Peru 1,700,000; Ecuador 1,000,000; Bolivia, 900,- 
000: Nicaragua is seven-eighths Indian; and the popula- 
tion of Mexico is heavily Indian : for the Spaniards, ruth- 
less as they are reported to have been, did not exterminate 
the original owners of the land. The other countries 
have either completely assimilated their Indians or nearly 
done so. As in the United States, it is to be expected 
that the Indian strain will disappear in a relatively short 
time through the increase in immigration, the greater 
fruitfulness of immigrant families, the limited power of 
adaptation of the Indian, and the generally adverse con- 
ditions in sanitation, food, inherited defects, and addic- 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts ^1 

tion to alcohol which have wrought havoc among the 
Indians of both continents. For the present, the Indians 
of Latin America supply a large share of the labor needed 
in mining, agriculture, and the industries. They have, 
too, on occasions, produced some of the most capable 
leaders in Latin America. One of the most interesting 
chapters still to be written on Latin America will set 
forth the emergence out of unpropitious surroundings of 
men of Indian extraction in Latin America who have left 
the imprint of their spirit of independence, energy, and 
sagacity on several countries. The names of Hidalgo, 
Juarez, Porfirio Diaz, Altamirano, Andres Santa Cruz, 
Paez, deserve a conspicuous place in history. 

LATIN AMERICA NOT EFFETE 

The industry of Latin Americans, whatever their com- 
plexion, has always offered opportunities for reprobation 
to American writers and travelers. How undeserved much 
of the comment is may be gathered from a brief statement 
^f facts. That we should carp at the laborjousness of less 
favored nations is, of course, somewhat ridiculous. By 
reason of our mechanical appliances, our splendid trans- 
portation facilities, and our labor laws, we have become 
the leisure nation par excellence. The Latin American 
undoubtedly works more minutes per day and harder per 
minute than the progressive citizen of the United States. 

In 1900, a year in which our figures for population 
(75,994,575) are comparable with the figures for the 
present population of Latin America (about 80,000,000), 
our foreign commerce amounted to $2,444,424,266. In 
1919 Latin American foreign commerce amounted to 
$5,064,588,740, or more than double our own per capita, 
as the figures stand, and probably not far below ours 
if the changed conditions in money values are taken into 
account. It is conceded by every patriotic American 
that we have the most productive country in the world, 
more machinery, and more efficient labor-saving devices. 
What else, then, can this Latin American business mean 
than that the Latin Americans are fully as laborious as 



22 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

we are — if not more so? All the sowing, harvesting, 
sacking, hauling, shipping of agricultural products and all 
the smelting, forging, hammering, assembling of manu- 
factured products in Latin America are done by Latin 
Americans, usually without the benefit of our superlative 
implements, splendid roads, and multitudinous railroads. 
Mr. Nevin 0. Winter in Argentina and Her People of 
Today offers some instructive testimony on this score : 

The term "effete," so often applied to Latin nations and the 
"proverbial laziness" of Spaniard and Italian, so often referred 
to by writers, does not apply here [in Buenos Aires]. From 
the shipping sections where boats, barges and tugs throng in 
endless procession, from the flats on the river where hundreds 
of acres have been reclaimed in recent years, to the business 
section and the wide tree-planted avenues where the electric cars 
rush out into the residence section, the traveller will observe noth- 
ing but movement and effort, unceasing work and activity. 

The Spanish and Italians spoken of are, it must be 
understood, Argentinians. 

EXAMPLES OP LATIN AMERICAN ENERGY 

A sense of fairness should compel us to judge Latin 
American ability and energy by what has been accom- 
plished in repeated instances. The register of extra- 
ordinary achievements is too long to be recited in full, 
but a few salient data will demonstrate sufficiently well 
the magnitude of Latin American enterprise and the vigor 
with which practical problems involving hard work are 
attacked. 

When the Government of Argentina decided to build 
its new Palace of Congress, which has already cost over 
$11,000,000, an entire section of the city had to be re- 
modeled. Five hundred business houses and private 
residences had to be torn down, whole streets had to be 
altered, and an extensive square had to be laid out, 
graded, and beautified into a fitting site. In 90 days the 
work was finished: and it is not too much to say that 
few similar projects have ever been carried out with 
greater speed in the United States. The construction of 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 23 

the [Avenida do Rio Branco in Eio de Janeiro entailed a 
like transformation and was effectuated under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Passos with startling rapidity. Over a 
thousand houses were demolished and removed, streets 
eliminated, sidewalks and roadbeds paved, trees planted, 
and public buildings erected in the space of 18 months. 
The reputation of this splendid avenue as the most superb 
street in the world testifies to the artistic taste and the 
admirable workmanship of the Brazilian director and his 
Brazilian employees. 

Buenos Aires, of course, as the chief metropolis of 
Latin America, may be expected to demonstrate in the 
most conspicuous fashion the degree and the quality of 
Latin American energy and progressiveness at their best. 
That it compares favorably with the greatest of foreign 
cities, though the capital of a republic having at present 
a population of only about 9,000,000 inhabitants, is a fact 
of extreme future significance. What its size and achieve- 
ments will be when Argentina has ten or fifteen times its 
actual density of population of nine inhabitants per square 
mile is a subject for interesting speculation. Thus far it 
has kept pace with the most advanced cities in either 
of the hemispheres. It has one of the most remarkable 
and expensive port systems in the world, the largest hide 
and wool market in the world, one of the most colossal 
warehouse buildings in the world in its Central Produce 
Market, one of the most complete systems of grain 
elevators in the world, one of the most extensive street- 
car systems in the world, one of the largest and most 
splendid opera houses in the world, one of the finest and 
largest race-tracks and stadiums in the world, one of the 
handsomest club-houses in the world, owned by one of 
the most exclusive of clubs, two of the greatest news- 
papers in the world — one of which. La Prensa, has one 
of the best equipped, most imposing, and most useful 
journalistic buildings in the world, costing $3,000,000, and 
what is considered nearly the best, if not actually the 
best, of foreign news services — and some of the most 
palatial public and private bmldings in the world. In 



24 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 

the opinion of ex-Secretary Colby, ''the Colon Theatre 
(of Buenos Aires) would make the Metropolitan Opera 
House look like a hastily constructed theatre in one of 
the rural towns of the Shubert Circuit." This opera 
house cost $10,000,000 and occupies an entire square. 

But Buenos Aires is not all Latin America and has no 
monopoly on the "grand style," whether in buildings, in 
business, or in spending. 

LATIN AMERICAJSr MAGNITUDES 

Mexico City possesses in its Cathedral the most impres- 
sive temple on this hemisphere, surpassed by only three 
others in the world, namely, St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and 
the Cathedral of Seville. Its theater is accounted the 
finest now in existence. The Botanical Gardens of Rio 
de Janeiro, embracing a million square meters of land 
and containing over 50,000 different species of flora, has 
scarcely a superior anywhere, and its Avenue of Palms, 
formed by 134 palms averaging 80 feet in height, has 
no equal. El Cerro de Santa Lucia of Santiago, Chile, 
has been termed by many travelers the most beautiful 
recreation park in the world. Sao Paulo, Brazil, has 
military barracks which aroused envy in M. Clemenceau: 

It is true that we were discussing a select troop, who enjoy 
not only special pecuniary advantages, but also quarters called 
by the vulgar name of barracks, but which, for convenience, 
hygiene, and comfort far surpass anything that our wretched 
budgets can allow us to offer to the French recruits. 

Latin American cities, in spite of their age, are young 
in development. The time may easily be foreseen when 
Buenos Aires, now the second largest Latin city in the 
world, coming next to Paris, will be the largest, when 
Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, with a present population 
of over 1,500,000 and 1,000,000, respectively, will displace 
Philadelphia and, perhaps, Chicago, in the census lists 
of the Western Hemisphere, and when many Latin 
American cities, either because of their size or of their 
beauty, or because of their natural picturesqueness will 
become the show places of the New "World. The growtK 



Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 25 

of several of them to immense proportions in population 
and commerce is certain, for already Havana and Buenos 
Aires receive and despatch more merchandise annually 
than any other ports in the Western Hemisphere after 
New York ; Valparaiso, Chile, is the most important harbor 
on the west coast after San Francisco; and a brilliant 
future is predicted for Panama as the result of transit 
through the Canal. 

POSSIBILITIES IN GROWTH 

To the growth of wealth in Latin America by reason 
of its natural resources and to the consequent future 
increase in population no limits can now be set which 
will not seem extravagant to us and niggardly to later 
generations. In countries where, as in Argentina, the 
average holding of 100,000 reported landowners is six 
square miles, or where, as in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, 
Paraguay, and Mexico, numerous estates range from 100,- 
000 to 1,000,000 acres, or where, as in Patagonia, one of 
the grazing ranches comprises more than 2,000,000 acres, 
or an area larger than that of the State of Rhode Island, 
all is possible, especially after the era of intensive cultiva- 
tion has set in. To those who doubt, two forecasts by that 
most judicious of observers. Viscount Bryce, will unques- 
tionably prove interesting. 

And now we may return to South America, the only continent 
containing both a large temperate and a large tropical area 
capable of cultivation which still remains greatly underpeopled. 
It is, therefore, the chief resource to which the overpeopled 
countries may look as providing a field for emigration, and to 
which the world at large may look as capable of reinforcing its 
food supply. 

In this immense fertile and temperate country [Argentina] 
with hardly six people to a square mile, what limit can we set 
to the growth of wealth and population? Already the nation is 
larger than the Dutch or Portuguese or Swedish. Within fifty 
years it may approach France or England, even if the present 
rate of increase be reduced. It may one day be the mo«t numerous 
among all the peoples that speak a tongue of Latin origin, as 
the United States is already the most numerous of all that speak 
a Teutonic one. 



26 Fallacies, Fancies, and Facts 



LAVISH EXPENDITURE AS A SIGN OP WEALTH 

Evidences of the wealth of Latin America are visible 
both in the "splurge" of city life and in the prices paid 
for articles of luxury and utility. A stall in the opera 
at Montevideo costs $12 and a box $80; and $50 to hear 
eminent singers like Caruso at one performance is not an 
unusual price. Membership in the Jockey Club of 
Buenos Aires costs over $2000 in initiation fees and more 
than $600 as annual dues: but this can scarcely seem a 
high rate in Argentina, where millionaires are more 
numerous in proportion to population than in any other 
country in the world. The bets made every year at the 
Hippodrome of the Jockey Club in the Parque de Palermo 
run well over $25,000,000. Cattle and race-horses bring 
in Argentina and Uruguay prices that would seem pro- 
hibitive even to us. Imported stud-horses have been bought 
for $150,000; $60,000 has been paid for a bull; and in 
1920 the respectable amount of 2,700,000 pesos (exchange 
value of the peso at that time being $.3925) was paid for 
12,000 steers in a single transaction. Fabulous sums are 
spent in Latin America for automobiles, furniture, dress, 
jewelry, and expensive sports by the moneyed classes : and 
the palatial residences and fashionable turnouts in the 
important centers of social activity are not excelled in 
Europe or the United States. 

Of late years, the attitude of our writers toward Latin 
America has been distinctly favorable. Better knowledge 
and, above all, a stronger desire to become acquainted 
with Latin American realities have changed the ideas of 
many writers, travelers, and readers. Certainly it would 
seem to be the part of wisdom to pay some attention to 
countries which, in a still undeveloped state, can present 
so many instances of initiative and enterprise and so many 
opportunities to a world in need of new fields and elbow- 
room. 



CHAPTER II 
THE END OF ISOLATION 

From the standpoint of the modern technological civi- 
lization, Latin America has belonged for about four cen- 
turies to that large group embracing most of the Orient 
— with the exception of Japan — and Eussia. Partly 
through geographical reasons, partly through political 
reasons, and partly through racial reasons, it has stood 
aloof from the industrial and scientific movements which 
have so significantly altered the course of civilization in 
Europe and America. Left to its own resources, it would 
have remained in relative isolation for an indefinite period. 
But no region can now escape the penetration of modern 
economic and social forces : and Latin America has proved 
no exception to the rule. It is emerging from its simple, 
quasi pastoral life into the complex evolution of a techno- 
logical age. 

In the past, the mere matter of distance from the centers 
of modern activity was sufficient to isolate Latin America 
from the rest of the world, and the distances between Latin 
American countries, in conjunction with the primitive state 
of communication, prevented the coast cities, which always 
maintained some form of contact with outside nations, 
from disseminating quickening influences in the interior. 

Had Paraguay occupied the position of Uruguay, the 
Dictator Francia, called El Supremo, could never have 
kept Paraguay a hermit republic for more than a quarter 
of a century (1814-1840) and sealed it absolutely to 
foreign intrusion: and if Mexico had extended its roads 
and railways to a degree at all comparable with that 
attained in the neighboring American states, many of its 
revolutions could not have occurred, its marvelous wealth 
would have been put to practical use, and its admission 

27 



28 The End of Isolation 

into the circle of the promising nations of the world would 
by now be an accomplished fact. 

PENETRATING FORCES 

Recent events and tendencies are demolishing the walls 
of Latin American isolation with startling rapidity. The 
obstacle presented by distance no longer, in any real sense, 
exists. The declaration of many casual students of Latin 
American affairs to the effect that intercourse between 
Latin America and the United States, for instance, will 
always be hampered by the distance from our metropolitan 
cities to the chief cities of South America has little, if 
any, merit. 

SHORTENING OF DISTAITCES TO LATIN AMERICA 

The Panama Canal has placed the "West Coast of South 
America four and five thousand miles nearer the United 
States than it had been before, and the utilization of more 
powerful steamships has materially cut down the time 
required in making the voyage from New York to Rio de 
Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. By the Canal 
route, Valparaiso, Chile, is only 4637 miles from New York, 
as contrasted with the previous 8588 miles, and 4035 miles 
from New Orleans, as opposed to the previous 9005 miles. 
London, which has been 9044 miles distant from Valparaiso, 
is still 7397 miles away by the Canal route. 

The improvement effected by the Canal in reducing the 
distance between the upper West Coast of South America 
and the United States is even more marked. Guayaquil, 
Ecuador, has profited to the extent of 8700 miles in its 
dealings with New York, having approached to within 2800 
miles of that port from its former distance of 11,500 miles. 

On the East Coast of South America, although no 
geographical short-cut is possible, similar reductions can 
be secured by an increase in the horsepower of the steam- 
ships using that route, as was recently shown by the 12 
days' run, under adverse conditions, of a United States 
ship from New York to Rio de Janeiro. There is 
no reason why the feats of the "Mauretania" or th6 



The End of Isolation 29 

"Deutschland" should not be duplicated on the South 
Atlantic. Buenos Aires is less than twice as far, and Rio 
de Janeiro only about once and a half as far, from New 
York as Liverpool: and ships of the caliber of the 
"Mauretania" should with ease make Rio in 10 days and 
**B. A.," as the local British call it, in 12 days. 

As the importance of the South American trade becomes 
more patent, the size and power of the steamships engaged 
in its service will necessarily be augmented. In any event, 
modern commerce recognizes no such thing as distance. 
India, China, and South America command more diligent 
attention from Great Britain than Denmark, and Argen- 
tina is considered a greater prize in the United States 
than Greece. 

The belief that distance is but a slight barrier to trade 
evidently animated Spain in the colonial days. Fearful 
lest England, France, and the Netherlands might traffic 
too freely in its new-found possessions, it undertook a 
severely restrictive policy, debarring all nations from com- 
mercial relations with Latin America. It shipped goods 
to Latin America and received goods from it through the 
medium of the flota or fleet, which plied between Spain 
and Spanish North America, and the galeones or galleons, 
which voyaged between Spain and South America. The 
trip was made only once a year by each group of vessels, 
and the system was maintained practically intact from 
1561 to 1748. 

But for the varied smuggling carried on by the buc- 
caneers, privateers, and traders of other nationalities, the 
Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America remained set 
apart from communication with the world of progress, 
prohibited even from the exchange of products with one 
another, and from commerce with any other city in Spain 
than Seville, which, through its Casa de Contratacion 
(House of Trade) exercised a genuine monopoly. Dis- 
tance — w^hich then meant the greater part of a year before 
goods or correspondence reached some pa:^ts of South 
America, and sometimes, as Professor William R. Shep- 
herd mentions, seventeen months — and Spanish govern- 



30 The End of Isolation 

mental manipulation imposed isolation on Latin America 
for centuries. That, however, is not as curious as the 
notion still held by some educated persons that the same 
state of isolation subsists to-day. Thousands, perhaps 
hundreds of thousands, of reputable American citizens 
imagine the major portion of Latin America to be an 
extension of the wilds of Brazil as described by Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

Isolation, too, has been inherent to Latin America both 
because of the character of its original dwellers and be- 
cause of the semi-Oriental life imposed by the Spaniards 
on the earlier civilization. Nowhere have the Indians 
of their own accord adventured far into foreign lands 
or attempted to discover what was on the other side of 
the waters surrounding them: and it is almost certain 
that they never would have done so to this day. The 
Spaniards and Portuguese, whose whole ambition in 
Latin America was to keep the easy fruits of slave labor 
to themselves, repelled advances by others and cared less 
about the progress of the countries which they had taken 
than about their own comfort. They instituted a domestic 
economy savoring of Orientalized Andalusia and were 
prepared to enjoy, time without end, the blessings of an 
untroubled landed proprietorship or the wealth extracted 
from the mines by docile Indian serfs. 

EMERGENCE FROM ISOLATION 

In general, the isolation of Latin America from uni- 
versal main currents lasted until about fifty years ago. 
Since then, Brazil has become a self-governing republic 
(1889), Paraguay has regained its independence (1870) 
after a heart-breaking struggle with the combined forces 
of Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, Cuba (1898) and 
Panama (1903) have become autonomous political entities, 
Colombia has changed from a federal to a unitary govern- 
ment, substituting its present name ''The Republic of 
Colombia" for its old title "The United States of 
Colombia," and Brazil has definitively assumed the fed- 
eral constitution (1887) under the name of "The United 



The End of Isolation 31 

States of Brazil" and removed the last vestiges of slavery 
in Latin America by its decree of abolition in 1888. 

Beginning with 1876, as Professor Shepherd rightly 
intimates, Latin America has been traveling on the road 
of modern progress. That date may be taken to represent 
the end of the isolation of Latin America. Whatever of 
importance has been achieved in aligning Latin America 
with the more liberal spirit of the modern world may 
be said to fall within the period dating from 1876. The 
opportunity for improvement has, then, been extremely 
limited in time. 

This does not, to be sure, mean that Latin America 
has felt the modern urge throughout the length and 
breadth of its territory. For any reasoning as to its 
progressiveness, it is divisible into four sections: the 
coastal and insular regions and the southern half of 
South America, which are immediately open to foreign 
influence, and the interior and the entire northern section, 
which, because of their present inaccessibility and their 
more tropical climate, absorb foreign elements more 
slowly. An encouraging phase of the situation in the 
latter regions is found in the dissatisfaction expressed 
by thoughtful Latin Americans. 

To-day [writes Don Mario Ribas in an article in El Renaci- 
miento of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and translated in Inter- 
America], we desire to refer, in a concrete manner, to the 
humiliating isolation in which we live in this beautiful land of 
pines and mountains. 

We are fifty hours from the capital of Costa Rica, and, never- 
theless, our contact with that charming country is as remote as 
if it were on the European continent. The little telegraphic news 
that is sent us from there reaches us five to eight days after 
having been despatched; Costa Riean newspapers are received 
here from twenty to thirty days after being issued; letters come 
with the same delay. 

Well, then: would it not be wise for someone to take it on 
himself to remedy these evils that so much affect our reputation? 
Would it not be well for someone to study carefully the way 
to improve our communications with the rest of the world by 
changing the blessed system, guilty of the evil we mention'? 

This particular case is extreme, no doubt, but it is to 



32 The End of Isolation 

the credit of progressive Latin Americans that it arouses 
righteous indignation instead of that philosophic acquies- 
cence in things as they are which is assumed to be the 
dominant Latin American trait. 

INCREASE IN SHIPPING 

The most profound change in Latin America's relations 
with its neighbors of the world has been wrought by the 
tremendous increase in shipping facilities since the days 
of the annual visit of the Spanish fleet. Shipping implies 
entrance and egress, the admission of goods, people, and 
ideas, and foreign travel. 

It is difficult for an American citizen with his pre- 
conceived notions concerning Latin America to realize that 
Latin America is speedily becoming one of the great 
shipping objectives of most of the nations of the world. 
The energy being displayed in this branch of international 
communication parallels the efforts of international 
bankers at affording Latin America the largest possible 
amount of financial connections with the rest of the world. 
As in banking, shipping is vital not only because of what 
it brings into the Latin American countries, but even 
more, perhaps, because of what it secures from them for 
general world utility. 

A catalogue of the American ships actually engaged in 
the Latin American trade, including the ships recondi-: 
tioned and allocated by the United States Shipping Board, 
while nearly as romantic, on account of their history, 
their names, and their purpose, as Homer's celebrated 
catalogue of the ships, would prove too lengthy for ordi- 
nary reading. Suffice it to say that a shipping total of 
39,000,000 tons (1920) represents a very respectable num- 
ber of individual ships, particularly when those ships are 
for the most part of moderate displacement. 

More than 30,000 craft, steam and sail, come in and 
out of the harbor of Buenos Aires annually, or an average 
of over 80 every 'day in the year. During 1920, 3101 
steam vessels and 177 sailing vessels entered the port of 
Rio de Janeiro, of which 438 were American. In 1905 



The End of Isolation 33 

not a single American steamer put in at Rio de Janeiro, 
and of the seven sailing vessels which made that port, 
two were in distress! In 1913 not a single American 
vessel arrived at Buenos Aires, though an observer in 
1852 counted more than 600 vessels flying the American 
flag in the harbor of Buenos Aires : in 1919, 335 American 
vessels arrived in the Argentine. "Well over 50 steam- 
ship lines arrive and depart regularly from Argentine 
ports representing every maritime nation on the globe: 
and 30 or more steamers a week leave United States 
docks alone for Cuba. 

After but six years of operation, the Panama Canal 
transmitted in 1920 a net tonnage of 10,378,265 tons or 
over 1,000,000 tons more than the Suez Canal in 1918, 
and more than half as much as the highest Suez record 
of 20,275,120 tons in 1912 : and much of this tonnage was 
in transit between Latin America and the rest of the 
world. 

The casual observer can but stand amazed at the 
feverish anxiety to make shipping connections with Latin 
America which appears to characterize every sea-faring 
nation in the world. It is as if Latin America had just 
been discovered and everybody were fired with the ambi- 
tion to establish a stake in the land of El Dorado. Be- 
sides the lines of old standing, such as the Lamport and 
Holt Line, the Funch-Edye Line, the Pacific Steamship 
Company, the Houston Line, the Lloyd Brazileiro, new 
steamship accommodations seem to be initiated daily. 

The following items selected from nearly fifty announce^ 
ments of new service projected or actually instituted 
during the past two years give a faint idea of the variety 
of steamship connections between Latin America and 
foreign countries and of the cosmopolitan character of 
the recently awakened interest in the southern republics. 

The Blue Diamond Line is building two 2000-ton ships 
to operate between New York and Guayaquil, Ecuador. 
With a capital of $4,000,000, the Compania Via j era 
Antillana has been formed for the "West Indian trade 
?ind is having 7 steamships laid down in the shipyards 



34 The End of Isolation 

of the United States and England. Contracts have been 
let in the United States by the Companhia Minas e Viagao 
de Matto Grosso of Brazil for the construction of 20 
vessels. The Munson Line has lately added to its South 
American service the "American Legion," which has 
shown her ability to make Rio de Janeiro from New 
York in 11 days, and is about to send her sister-ship, the 
"Southern Cross," over the same route. The Trans- 
atlantica Italiana and the Nacional de Navegacion have 
already instituted service to Chile by way of Panama and 
expect to add 10 more ships, receiving a substantial 
subsidy from the Chilean Government. Three large re- 
frigerator vessels are soon to be placed in the New York 
service by the South American Steamship Company for 
the transportation of fresh fruits and vegetables from 
Chile to the American market. Herr Hugo Stinnes, the 
German capitalist, has entered the "Hindenburg" as the 
first of a series of steamships connecting Germany with 
the La Plata region. The Hugo Persson Line has diverted 
some of its passenger and freight vessels to establish a 
service between Goteborg, Sweden, and Venezuelan ports. 
A joint steamship service has been organized by the Van 
Nievelt Goudriaan and Company's Steam Navigation 
Company and the Holland-American Line to offer two 
distinct fortnightly services between Rotterdam, Ham- 
burg, and Antwerp and Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. 
The ships of the Prince Line Far East Service have begun 
to ply between Yokohama and Havana. The Canadian 
Government has half a dozen ships in the Caribbean and 
South American trade and is projecting additional service 
between Vancouver and Mexican, Central American, and 
South American ports. 

Omitting hundreds of other happenings of profound 
import in the shipping world, such as the enlargement 
of the piers at the Panama Canal, the construction of 
new dockyards at Vera Cruz and of a dry dock with a 
capacity of 2500 tons at Valparaiso, the rapid building 
of ships in Latin American shipyards — 134 of which were 
finished by national workmen at Barranquilla, Colombia^ 



The Efid of Isolation 35 

alone between 1912 and 1916 — the erection of an expensive 
office building at Cristobal, Canal Zone, by British ship- 
ping interests, the constant widening of the docks at 
Buenos Aires, which are without a superior in the world 
and have already cost considerably more than $50,000,000, 
it may be said that a new era in world contact has 
undeniably dawned in Latin America. 

We may assume, also, as a matter of course, that the 
multiplication of shipping facilities will bring increased 
immigration to Latin America in its wake and that the 
possibilities of heavy immigration are furthered by our 
own immigration restrictions, our business depression re- 
sulting in unemployment, and the general labor situation 
in this country. 

IMMIGRATION 

Immigration into Latin America involves several ques- 
tions of extremely curious character. Every Latin Amer- 
ican country is to-day suffering from man-power hunger. 
Vast stretches of inhabitable land lie unused and tre- 
mendous natural resources remain undeveloped through 
want of population. Nations all over the world are bank- 
rupt in space; Germany and Japan have fought costly 
wars partly for the purpose of providing room for their 
excess population; the Jews of the world cherish the 
dream of a country of their own in which to assume the 
unequivocal status of a well-defined nationality and to 
secure economic well-being: and yet there has been no 
sudden rush to Latin America. Propitious though the 
latter has always been to settlers, and rich enough in 
supplies and opportunities to satisfy the needs of home- 
seekers for countless years, immigration into Latin 
America has pursued a leisurely course. 

The explanation is to be sought on the one hand in the 
policy of isolation maintained by Spain nearly until Latin 
America gained its independence and in the turbulent 
conditions following the revolutionary wars, and, on the 
other, in the real distance of Latin America from Europe 
<Jown to a recent date and in the anti-pioneering spirit 



36 The End of Isolation 

fostered in some countries by an accumulation of "modern 
improvements." The first three causes are easily com- 
prehensible. The fourth seems trifling, but is in truth 
potent, and accounts for the direction from which immi- 
gration streams. 

The intrepid colonizers come from Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, and the agricultural districts of Germany, where 
primitive conditions still obtain and man has not become 
enervated by the influence of labor-saving devices and 
all the appurtenances of a comfort loving civilization. 
Farming in Italy and farming in Argentina, Brazil, or 
Uruguay constitute an identical operation: the work is 
done with sweat of brow, by the use of rough implements, 
and in similar climatic circumstances; and life is simple 
and unadorned. Land at five dollars an acre in the 
agricultural paradise of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, is 
not by any means without charm to the American farmer 
who pays from $200 to $300 for land that is not a whit 
better: but he does not venture to buy it. He is unwill- 
ing to "rough it" in a primitive environment. 

Compared with our own immigration, that of Latin 
America appears small. But it is always well to remem- 
ber that we cannot in fairness employ our figures of over 
a million immigrants in 1910 and 1913, or our immigra- 
tion "peak" of 1,285,349 in 1907, as a standard for Latin 
America. We must reckon back nearly 50 years — the 
lead which we have over Latin America in self-govern- 
ment and free expansion — in order to obtain a proper 
basis for comparison, for it is only by such a retrospect 
that we can expect to duplicate general conditions in the 
United States and in Latin America. 

In 1875 the number of immigrants . arriving in the 
United States totaled 227,498, or slightly more than the 
214,000 who entered Argentina alone in 1905. Not until 
1881 did our annual immigration amount to half a million, 
and not until 1905, to a million. If, by 1927, half a million 
immigrants land in Latin America for the year, and if. 
by 1951, a million are admitted for that year, Latin 
America will have kept pace with us according to the 



The End of Isolation 37 

most rigid arithmetical calculations. That such will 
actually turn out to be the case, nobody familiar with 
the immigration progress being made now in Latin 
America, the inducements offered by the Latin American 
governments, the conditions in Europe and the Orient, 
restriction of immigration in the United States, and the 
wealth of steamship service to Latin America — always a 
most important factor — can for an instant doubt. 

The four countries of the most highly cosmopolitan 
complexion in Latin America are Argentina, Chile, 
Uruguay, and Brazil. These countries are in close touch 
with the rest of the world and cannot any longer be 
characterized as remote or isolated, no matter how little 
we in the United States may know about them. To 
immigration, with its enlivening qualities and its external 
bonds, more than to any other cause, can be ascribed the 
transformation of southern South America from a region 
of medieval obscurity; to one of ubiquitous modern 
relations. 

The influx of immigration into Argentina, Chile, 
Uruguay, and Brazil has given a predominantly Italian 
or German east to many sections of each country. 

Whether Argentina can now be termed a thoroughly 
Spanish country is a question, for nearly a quarter of 
its population is Italian, and there is, within the limits 
of Buenos Aires, a larger Italian city than Rome itself. 

As in our own large cities, the Italians of Argentina 
tend to congregate in groups, form their own aristocracy, 
maintain their own churches, establish their own artistic 
circles, and exert a political power commensurate with 
their numerical, social, and economic prominence. Much 
of the labor of Argentine cities is done by Italians, and 
a great part of the agricultural work is accomplished by 
Italians, many of whom belong to a professional farm- 
labor class which harvests the crops of Argentina during 
the months of December, January, February, and March, 
and returns to Italy in time to plant and to reap its own 
harvests in the Italian summer and autumn. 

The Italians settling in Argentina are, as a rule, from 



38 . The End of Isolation 

the north of Italy, hard-working, serious, and ambitious 
to improve their lot. That they are not content to remain 
at the bottom of the ladder, from which most of them 
have started, is evidenced by the fact that out of 401,555 
foreigners owning land in Argentina in 1914, over 203,500 
were Italians, and that many of the most eminent bankers, 
planters, business-men, artists, and scholars are Italian. 
Whoever visits Buenos Aires will often wonder if he is 
not in a new Italian metropolis, and whoever crosses 
Argentina from the Gran Chaco to Tierra del Fuego will 
find Italians everywhere, whether as farm and factory 
hands or as proprietors and industrial leaders. 

Uruguay, too, has a considerable Italian population, 
with colonies in the departments of Colonia and Soriano ; 
and in Montevideo, as in Buenos Aires, the Italians are 
the foremost foreign element. Mr. Eobert E. Speer aptly 
denominates the usual Uruguayan type as a mixture of 
the Spanish and the Italian. In Chile, however, the Italian 
yields to foreigners of a more northern European strain. 
But in Brazil, the Italian comes into his own again. 
Further north he is less conspicuous, and on the West 
Coast in general, he offers slight competition to the pre- 
ponderant German, English, and Irish groups. He is at 
his best in the broad agricultural zone of the East Coast 
extending down from Rio Grande do Sul, and it is 
probable that his proficiency in farm-work, in certain 
manufactures, as a railroad hand, and as a helper on the 
docks explains his settlement in that locality. 

This year (1921) 30,000 Italians are expected to arrive 
in Brazil, and the Italian Government is understood to 
be desirous of concluding a treaty with Brazil for the 
regulation of such emigration in the future. During the 
twelve years ending with 1919, Italy sent 165,709 settlers 
to Brazil — the largest quota after Portugal and Spain. 
From 1885 to 1905 the number of Italian immigrants to 
Brazil was almost three times as large as the number 
from Portugal, or 1,068,032 Italians as against 356,979 
Portuguese. The total Italian population of Brazil, in- 



The End of Isolation 39 

eluding children born of Italian parents, is now consider- 
ably more than 2,000,000. 

In the State of Sao Paulo, where the Italians are 
principally congregated, they number fully one-third of 
the entire population, or more than 1,000,000 out of a 
total of 3,000,000: and their influence in making that 
State the most progressive and energetic in the Brazilian 
Union can scarcely be overestimated. The capital of Sao 
Paulo, like Buenos Aires, is heavily Italian, more than 
half of its inhabitants being of Italian blood, and the 
Italian language, Italian music, and Italian laughter may 
be heard the livelong day in many sections of the bustling 
city. 

In Brazil, as in Argentina and Uruguay, the Italian 
prefers the expansive life of work done in the great out- 
of-doors, and we find, consequently, that he flocks to the 
vast coffee plantations, most of which are manned by his 
fellows. In spite of the numerical superiority of Italians 
in Brazil, no grave Italian problem arose during the war. 
Nor was there fear at any time of such a problem, as 
there was in many quarters on account of the German 
population of Brazil. 

Next to the Italians, the Germans have settled in Latin 
America in the most considerable numbers — leaving out 
of account, of cour^se, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, 
who may be regarded at all times as imminent Latin 
Americans — and with every appearance of permanence. 
How much German colonization owes to instigation by 
the German Government will probably remain a moot 
point, but that it has always shown more careful organ- 
ization than the emigration of other nationalities is cer- 
tain. 

The German colonists of Valdivia, Chile, indeed, seem 
to have left their native land as a protest against the 
military and political career mapped out for the newer 
Germany toward the middle of the nineteenth century, 
and cannot be charged with German propaganda, but 
they, too, acted collectively, and not as individuals, 
founded their homes through co-operation in one of the 



40 The End of Isolation 

garden spots of southern Chile, and by common consent 
retain the customs and speech of the Fatherland. They, 
together with the colonists of Llanquihue, now number 
more than thirty thousand. The opinion of some writers, 
such as Mr. Clayton S. Cooper, to the effect that these 
settlers entered into the German scheme of penetration 
in South America with the aim of creating a German 
Empire in Latin America, must be discounted in view of 
the early date of their emigration to Chile. They have 
preserved their language, schools, and churches, as agri- 
cultural Germans are likely to do everywhere : as they do 
to-day, or were doing before the war, in some districts 
of Nebraska and Missouri. Their undertaking was no 
more "inspired" than that of the group of citizens in 
Freiburg, Germany, who have recently begun (1920) the 
publication of a Paraguayan review for the purpose of 
fomenting emigration to Paraguay. One of the "vulgar 
errors" which must cautiously be guarded against in 
treating of German immigration into Latin America is 
the widely disseminated notion that every German 
colonist in Latin America marched under the aegis of the 
Prussian eagle. 

No Latin American country is without its contingent 
of German settlers. In Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, 
Guatemala, and in most of the West Indies they are 
proprietors of coffee and sugar plantations, conduct 
important commission houses, and have large banking 
interests. It is possible that something like a loose organ- 
ization, at least sentimental, binds them to one another, 
to German firms in the United States, and to the mercan- 
tile and industrial institutions of Germany. 

The chief German centers, however, , are situated in 
the southern part of South America, principally in Brazil, 
Argentina, and Chile. 

Brazil presents, perhaps, the best instance of the various 
steps through which German immigration has passed in 
Latin America. Beginning, in the fifties, with settlements 
made by Germans dissatisfied with political and economic 
conditions in Germany — and therefore never an instru- 



The End of Isolation 41 

ment of the German Government — ^it continued by addi- 
tions attracted through the success of the original 
colonists, increased with the definite support and encour- 
agement of Imperial Germany, reached its moment of 
greatest pride when a statesman of German descent be- 
came the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, under- 
went an eclipse when Brazil declared war against 
Germany and seized German ships and property, and is 
now being revived through private initiative in Germany, 
with the full approval of the Brazilian authorities. 

The Brazilian debt to these German settlers is large, 
and so thoroughly have Germans become an integral part 
of Brazilian national life that a diminution in their num- 
bers and influence may be set aside as highly improbable. 

German colonists now practically control two of the 
most fruitful states of the Brazilian republic, namely, 
Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul. From about 
20,000 German immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul in 1859, 
the German population has grown by natural increase and 
the arrival of newcomers to over 200,000, and the German 
population of Santa Catharina, though smaller, shows a 
like rate of progress. The State of Parana is also 
markedly German. In these three states, the business 
houses are usually under German control, and Brazilian 
employees are often required to obtain a knowledge of 
German in order to be able to serve their clientele prop- 
erly. German is the common tongue. 

The picture drawn by the Rev. Dr. Zahm indicates the 
degree to which German colonists have made themselves 
at home in Brazil, and is free from any sinister sugges- 
tion, just as the life itself is probably free from anything 
bordering on political contamination by Germany: 

So true is this that one may travel from Sao Leopoldo, near 
Porto Alegre, for almost one hundred and fifty miles towards 
the west and rarely hear any language but German. The greet- 
ings of the peasants on the highway are a cordial guten Tag or 
guten Abend, and their accent is as marked as that of a newcomer 
from Thuringia or the Rhineland. They are kind and hospitable, 
and, in this respect, remind one of the Pennsylvania Dutch of 
a generation ago. They have everywhere their Vereine — social 



42 The End of Isolation 

and athletic clubs — where the customs of their fathers are as 
rigidly preserved as in any part of Germany. In the larger 
towns, beer is the favorite beverage of the club members, but 
in the interior, far from the railroad, mate takes its place. Every- 
where one finds large families of light-haired, ruddy-faced chil- 
dren, and to listen to their animated prattling in German one 
could readily fancy oneself in a country home in Bavaria, or 
in a village in Hanover. 

Far from decreasing, German immigration into Brazil 
shows an upward trend at the present moment. The 
economic plight of Germany, heavy taxation, the discour- 
agement following an unsuccessful war which made the 
German name a subject of odium in many countries 
hitherto preferred by German emigrants, explicit 
announcements of the Brazilian Government that it would 
welcome and aid German settlers, and the assurance that 
they would find multitudes of their countrymen enjoying 
prosperity and honor in Brazil, have all conduced to an 
unusual German interest in that underpopulated and 
incalculably rich republic. 

Recently, the steamship "Caxias" arrived in Brazil 
with 1000 German immigrants and the **Pocone," from 
Hamburg, with over a thousand ; an Austro-German immi- 
gration society for settlement throughout Brazil has been 
founded with over 2000 members; and the Government 
of Brazil, anticipating a steady flow of immigrants, has 
asked for transportation bids from the steamship com- 
panies carrying passengers between Europe and South 
America. 

The fear of German aggression has now disappeared 
in Brazil, the entering Germans come in an earnest spirit 
and very much in need of sympathy, and the results of 
further German colonization can but be beneficial. The 
States of Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul may con- 
tinue to receive accessions of G ermans to such an extent as to 
make the German element indisputably preponderant, just 
as it is in some of our Middle Western states, but the 
Brazilian authorities have learned much about hyphena- 
tion and duality of sentiment during the war, and are 
prosecuting a sturdy campaign of patriotism to obviate 



The End of Isolation 43 

the risk of harboring equivocal residents within their 
national territory. 

Over Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay, Ger- 
mans have spread in goodly numbers, and delegates of 
German immigration societies are to-day busily inves- 
tigating the possibilities of group colonization. This will 
naturally mean the occupation of rural lands, and a farm- 
movement rather than a city-movement. As an agricul- 
turist, the German is exemplary. His sense of comfort 
and neatness causes him to convert bare fields into well- 
ordered, productive land and to conjure a homelike 
atmosphere out of the desert air. He is also unspoiled 
by that urban German forwardness resembling a military 
offensive, which leads to a distaste for his manners and 
suspicion of his motives. In El Chaco of Paraguay, in 
the valleys of Chile, in the far districts of Patagonia, 
the German is a model farmer and citizen, and asks only 
to be permitted to work out his salvation by thrift and 
unremitting toil. He has nothing in common with that 
class of immigrants, dangerous because of their destruc- 
tive sentiments, their secret ambitions, or their personal 
uncleanliness, against which some publicists, in spite of 
Argentina's need of a continuous flow of newcomers, are 
already urging the adoption of restrictive measures 
similar to those contained in the Johnson bill. 

Argentina and the other Latin American countries, to 
be sure, cannot afford to prohibit immigration even for 
a year, but many of the recent labor and political 
troubles indicate that they may be obliged to exercise a 
careful choice in admitting foreigners. The emergence 
from isolation brings its penalties as well as its rewards. 

Among the other foreigners in Latin America, the 
British exert, beyond question, the greatest per capita 
influence. Never found in large numbers — though mak- 
ing up the respectable figure of 54,000 in Brazil by 1913 
— they have settled in every country and are connected 
with important banking, agricultural, railroad, commer- 
cial, mining, and hydraulic enterprises. They preserve a 
social aloofness, yet set the styles in sports, men's dress, 



44 The End of Isolation 

and, in some instances, in household economy. The 
wealthy Argentine family often boasts a hall and an 
English governess, and the educated Argentinian or 
Chilean interlards his speech with Anglicisms. The size 
of the British colony of Buenos Aires may be judged by 
the fact that in 1910 eight English papers were published 
in the Argentine capital — ^not as many, indeed, as were 
published in Italian (22), but equal to the number pub- 
lished in French and in German. The total British popu- 
lation of Argentina is now something over 50,000. 

Particularly noteworthy among the British settlers are 
those hardy Scots, Welsh, New Zealanders who work 
immense tracts of land in Patagonia, and the agricultural 
English and Irish who elect to cultivate the "camp," 
frequently giving up their national identity and speech 
for the nationality and language of their adopted country. 
In Chile, the most honored names are of men of British 
stock, such as O'Higgins, Lord Cochrane, Vicuiia 
Mackenna, who have contributed gloriously to the history 
and learning of the republic. In Peru, too, the standing 
of the British is extremely high, though their numbers 
are few. 

The least prominent among settlers in Latin America 
are the North Americans. From the 30,000 odd Americans 
at present in Mexico, to which the Mennonite colony of 
between 15,000 and 20,000 from Canada is, it is reported, 
to be added this year (1921), and the 7000 in Cuba in 
1914, they dwindle to a mere handful in most of the Latin 
American countries. But the expansion of American busi- 
ness in Latin America and the continued exploitation 
of oils and minerals, together with the high cost of land 
and the limited opportunities for cattle-raising on a large 
scale in the United States, are already beginning to draw 
the attention of persons in the United States seeking 
broader or better fields of action. The recent project 
for establishing 1000 American families in Bolivia, where 
120 acres may be obtained for $5.00, cannot fail to inspire 
similar undertakings. Nothing could prove more benefi- 
cial to our commercial and cultural relations with Latin 
America. 



The End of Isolation 45 

Nor should immigration into Latin America seem a 
fearful trial to our citizens. Better immigration induce- 
ments, regulations, and accommodations are offered no- 
where. Italians, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Scan- 
dinavians avail themselves of this liberality, and there 
is no reason why Americans anxious to improve their 
condition should not do so. 

A glance at the following data of immigration shows 
the cosmopolitan make-up of the larger Latin American 
republics and should effectually dispose of the idea that 
Latin America has few world contacts or that the popu- 
lation is anywhere either exclusively Spanish or Por- 
tuguese or almost exclusively Indian. In the new era 
upon which Latin America has entered with the twentieth 
century, it is becoming more and more Europeanized, and 
will some day be identical as a "melting pot" with the 
United States, differing only in the circumstance that the 
basic fabric of society will be Spanish or Portuguese, 
instead of English, as among us. 

Approximate immigration into Argentina during the past 50 years 

Italians 2,250,000 British 53,000 

Spaniards 1,500,000 Swiss 32,000 

French 210,000 Portuguese 25,000 

Russians 155,000 Belgians 22,000 

Syrians 130,000 Greeks 11,000 

Austrians 85,000 Dutch 7,000 

Germans 60,000 North Americans . . . 6,000 

Approximate immigration into Brazil, 1820-1915 

Italians 1,300,000 French 28,000 

Portuguese 976,000 British 22,000 

Spaniards 468,583 Japanese 15,000 

Germans 123,000 Swiss 10,000 

Russians 104,000 Swedes 5,000 

Austrians 78,000 Belgians 4,000 

Turk- Arabs 52,000 

Approximate number of foreign residents in Mexico in 1910 

Spaniards 30,000 French 5,000 

North Americans (U. Germans 4,000 

S.) 29,000 Turks 3,000 

Chinese 13,000 ItaUans 3,000 

British 5,000 Japanese 2,000 



46 The End of Isolation 

The effect of this foreign leaven of energetic character 
and proereative capacity on the small basic population 
of Latin America and on the slowly, but surely, diminish- 
ing Indian strain must portend significant ethnic changes 
in the near future, and should result in highly instructive 
social phenomena. 

TRANSPORTATION 

The development of internal communication in Latin 
America has an important bearing on the rate of immi- 
gration, and, obviously, on the rapidity with which the 
remoter regions issue from their actual state of isolation. 
In spite of the magnificent system of waterways with 
which South America is supplied, the crying need every- 
where is for more railroads, more highways, more auto- 
mobile roads. Our own experience has demonstrated that 
nothing has equaled these arteries of travel and trans- 
portation in the stimulation of agriculture and the indus- 
tries. Latin American statesmen and financiers are thor- 
oughly convinced that the ultimate prosperity of their 
countries is conditioned on the increase in railroad and 
highway transportation facilities and are making every 
effort to extend them in every direction. The work is 
necessarily slow, due to the configuration of the "West 
and North coasts of South America and to the small 
amount of coal available within the republics themselves, 
but the work has never stood still and is actually pro- 
ceeding at an encouraging rate. 

The disparity between our 264,233 miles of railroad 
and the 65,000 or 70,000 miles of railroad in Latin America 
need not mislead us into underestimating what has been 
accomplished in the southern republics, however, great 
that difference may be in figures. Forty-one years ago, 
only 93,267 miles of track had been laid in the United 
States: and we must wait nearly half a century before 
we can expect achievements resembling our own from 
Latin America. The difference between the date of our 
independence and that of the Latin American republics 
should not be forgotten for a moment, in making com- 



The End of Isolation 47 

parisons. Although there is little practical use in draw- 
ing a parallel between any of the Latin American coun- 
tries — which are genuine countries, and not states — and 
any of our states, it is still interesting to observe that 
in absolute mileage, many of those republics exceed ours. 

The relative smallness of our states, when placed be- 
side the Latin American countries, our general lack of 
such natural fluvial communication, for example, as per- 
mits vessels of 9 and even 14 feet draft to reach eleven 
large interior river-ports in Uruguay — ships therefore, 
of nearly twice as great a draft as those which can 
navigate the Erie Canal, with its allowance of 6 feet 
draft — our swift evolution of industries, and our habitua- 
tion to rapid means of locomotion have literally forced 
a remarkable railway expansion in the United States. 

The opposite obtains in every one of these particulars 
in Latin America : so much so, that most of us, even 
when admitting the huge size of some of the Latin Amer- 
ican countries, would feel inclined to doubt that Mexico 
has more railroad mileage than New York State or that 
Uruguay has more miles of railroad than Connecticut, 
Maryland, or New Hampshire. In effect. New York in 
1910 had 8429, Connecticut, 1000, Maryland, 1426, New 
Hampshire, 1245 miles of railway trackage. The railways 
of Argentina in 1918 totaled 21,880 miles; of Brazil in 
1917, 17,477 miles; of Mexico in 1914, 15,840 miles; of 
Uruguay in 1917, 1654 miles. 

Railway progress in the more highly modernized coun- 
tries of Latin America is, in fact, well advanced. Buenos 
Aires is connected with the interior by numerous radiat- 
ing main lines; and that portion of the republic which 
lies within 300 miles of the capital is as densely studded 
with rails as the State of Ohio. Direct railway connec- 
tion exists between Argentina and Chile, Paraguay, and 
Bolivia, and the plans of both Argentina and Brazil look 
to the junction of the main Argentine and Brazilian sys- 
tems. To-day, Argentina occupies the ninth place in the 
world in railroad mileage. Brazil is joined by rail to 
Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia, and has in the Sao 



48 The End of Isolation 

Paulo-Santos line perhaps the best equipped railroad in 
the world, due undoubtedly to the fact that its profits, 
above a moderate dividend, should revert to the Govern- 
ment and are consequently, for reasons which will readily 
be understood by those who have observed some of the 
workings of our excess profits tax, employed in main- 
tenance of the highest and most costly type. Chile has 
direct railroad contact with Argentina and Bolivia, and 
its Longitudinal Kailway already covers a distance of 
1957 miles. Peru has some of the most remarkable rail- 
roads in the world, including the Central Railway, which 
climbs from sea-level to a height of 15,865 feet near 
Oroya, or over 1700 feet higher than Pike's Peak; the 
Guayaquil-Quito Line of Ecuador, mounting to an eleva- 
tion of more than 9000 feet above sea-level, shortens to 
two days a journey which formerly took two weeks on 
mule-back; and the Trans- Andean Line, between Argen- 
tina and Chile, and the La Guaira-Caracas Railroad of 
Venezuela represent some of the most ambitious feats 
of railway engineering as yet undertaken. Ever since 
1880, Mexico, racked though it has been by internal up- 
heavals, has kept on with railroad construction, and is 
now finishing such projects as the Durango-Canitas line, 
instituting new projects, and building many additional 
terminals, of which the Tampico station in Aztec style 
and the union station in Mexico City will be the most 
noteworthy. 

In the coarse of another half-century, the present rail- 
way situation in Latin America will be regarded as but 
the nucleus for the real railroad development which is 
coming. It is more than probable, likewise, that we shall 
learn something from Latin America about the govern- 
ment ownership and operation of railroads, for Chile, 
Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico have already had a con- 
siderable and generally successful experience in that 
direction. 

Many writers and travelers maintain that not railroads, 
but highways will for a long time be the chief essential 
for the effectual opening up of the unexploited resources 



The End of Isolation 49 

of Latin America and for the definitive settling of the 
land : and anybody; who has traveled over the nondescript 
trails and mud roads of the interior or even of the rural 
districts just outside the cities will cordially approve this 
view. The immense extent of non-urban territory, its 
rugged condition, and the traditional indifference of gov- 
erning bodies to rural needs have held road-building down 
to a minimum. ' 

The unorganized peasants of Latin America have rarely 
complained about the hardships in getting their produce 
to market. Their forefathers drove their horses, mules, 
burros, or llamas before them in biblical fashion, and 
what was good enough for them has usually been good 
enough for their descendants. Economy of time in the 
simple pastoral age in which they have lived has had no 
special charm. The rich planters, particularly the more 
modern, money-making individuals or corporations who 
have come in from the advanced industrial sections of 
Europe or the United States, have either had railways 
built to their estates and tolerated poor roads more than 
they could otherwise have done or have put up with 
what they have found, depending on trains of rude, heavy 
carts and plentiful, cheap labor. 

There is little doubt, indeed, that the governments of 
Latin America have, until very recently, done less for 
roads than the aboriginal Indians, who, especially in 
Mexico and Peru, constructed enduring highways for 
their armies, their merchants, their revenue collectors, or 
the Spaniards, to whom for both military and commercial 
purposes, highways were absolutely indispensable. The 
Spaniards in Latin America were in exactly the same 
position as the Romans in the conquered provinces: and 
highways followed the flag. 

The apathy with regard to roads has resulted partly 
from the withdrawal of policing armies and partly from 
the investment value of railways. If foreign investment 
companies were able to derive a satisfactory and regular 
profit from road-building, the highways would now be 
jn, as flourishing a state, at least, as the railroads. All 



50 The End of Isolation 

forms of transportation in Latin America have thus far 
owed their main development to foreign capital: and 
steamships and railroads return a steady yield and offer 
prospects of expanding returns whereas roads do not. In 
addition, road-building in Latin America waits on govern- 
ment initiative and is not a popular type of occupation 
to the laboring classes, even immediately before elections. 

But road-building in Latin America cannot remain at 
a standstill while everything else is advancing. The dis- 
covery of oil, above all, in almost every Latin American 
country points to immediate highway activity. The auto- 
mobile bids fair to do for the non-urban district what it 
has brought to pass in the United States. It should prove 
as destructive to isolation as it has in every section of 
our country. 

Curiously enough, Venezuela, which has commonly been 
depreciated beyond its deserts, in spite of the inspiration 
which it has furnished and the great leaders — ^Miranda, 
Bolivar, Andres Bello — ^whom it has produced for Latin 
America, appears to be forging ahead in the construction 
of roads more rapidly than most of its sister-republics. 
The great Western Highway which will join Caracas with 
San Cristobal across the country at the frontier of 
Colombia, and the roads from Ocumare to San Fernando 
on the River Apure, from Coro to Trujillo and to Mara- 
caibo, from Barcelona to Ciudad Bolivar, the chief city 
on the Orinoco, are all under way and radiate inland 
from the north toward the west and south, opening up 
large sections to commercial and automobile traffic. 

In Nicaragua, an American syndicate has been con- 
structing cart roads to many points in the interior. 
Salvador and Guatemala have joined the good roads 
movement, mainly with the object of facilitating trans- 
portation to and from the interior; Cuba is fairly well 
provided with roads ; and the military highway, together 
with numerous stretches of road built by the American 
government in Porto Rico, is a thing of beauty and a 
joy forever. On the South American continent, the small 
republic of Uruguay, has over 2000 miles of national 



The End of Isolation 51 

highways and 3000 miles of wagon roads and bridle paths, 
though Mr. J. 0. P. Bland's acute criticism is funda- 
mentally correct: 

One need not be a prophet or an augur to perceive that the 
one thing needful for the development of the country (and with 
it of the railway) is good roads, and plenty of them, throughout 
the interior. I have met with estancieros who recognized this 
fundamental truth and who would be glad to contribute their 
fair share for a comprehensive scheme to make and maintain 
roads for motor lorry traffic; but as a general rule they prefer 
to stick to the good old hoary system which isolates the estancias 
of any district when the rivers happen to be in flood, and which 
means sending produce and bringing in materials, either by slow 
bullock-wagons or eight-horse team, over the vilest of makeshift 
mud roads. One would imagine that a government which pro- 
claims the democratic and progressive gospel according to Seiior 
Battle would perceive the futility of encouraging the immigration 
of colonists and chacreros [agriculturists] without first evolving 
a practical road-making policy. 

Chile's public roads now total over 20,000 miles. Brazil, 
though making slow progress in roads, has good auto- 
mobile roads from Santos to Sao Paulo, from Sao Paulo 
to Campinas, from Piedade to Sorocaba, and in several 
other localities, where there is usually a garage or two 
and a repair shop, and is extending a road 1000 miles 
in length to connect Guarapuava in the State of Parana 
with the town of Matto Grosso. The latter highAvay, 
which will take in Vaccaria, the most important cattle 
center in the State of Matto Grosso, is reckoned of such 
prospective value by the Government that measures have 
already been taken for the colonization of Italians along 
the route. With the fondness for motor cars which charac- 
terizes the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, the construction 
of automobile roads for goodly distances from the capital 
in every direction is bound shortly to be an assured fact. 
Even mountainous Peru has of late years become con- 
vinced of the civilizing and commercial influence of roads, 
has many short automobile routes to which additions are 
being made, has completed the beautiful Avenida Miramar 
joining Lima to half a dozen suburban and seashore re- 
sorts, and is considering — though it can scarcely hope Iq 



52 The End of Isolation 

carry it out — the remarkable expedient of making road 
service, payable in personal or hired labor, compulsory 
for all males between 18 and 60 years of age. Among the 
organizations chiefly instrumental in stimulating road- 
making in Peru is the Automobile Club of Lima: and 
various other automobile clubs in Latin America have 
exerted both personal and corporate power to a highly; 
significant degree in securing more and better highways. 

Through its shipping, immigration, and railway and 
road development, Latin America as a whole is yielding 
to the pressure of the modern technological civilization 
and taking up, sometimes successively and sometimes 
simultaneously, the activities of the modern western 
world. Its transportation is not now what it was in the 
days of the Incas and the Aztecs or of the Spanish. Its 
ethnic structure is undergoing a rapid change through 
modification by more advanced foreign elements than 
Spaniards and Portuguese of the old school. Its newly- 
awakened interest in roads, resulting to a large extent 
from the transcendent role of oil, signifies that it has 
in many republics at last become aware that highways 
are the foundations on which all modes of transportation 
and all successful colonization ultimately rest. 

Steamships, railroads, highways, telephone and tele- 
graph systems, and newspapers are rapidly overcoming 
Latin America's isolation with respect to the outside world 
in the more progressive countries and slowly, but per- 
ceptibly, in the less accessible republics, such as Bolivia 
and Paraguay. Fully as important a result is the break- 
ing down of sectional barriers within Latin America it- 
self. 



CHAPTER III 
CHANGING INDUSTRIES 

During the major part of its history,. Latin America 
has been taken up and utilized more or less at random, 
without special regard for the morrow, and unmolested 
by immediate considerations of economic necessity. That 
time has definitively passed. 

Latin America has finally moved from the outer fringe 
of the world into the concert of nations dominated by 
economic conceptions, or, to state the case differently, 
has been environed by the ever-widening circle of the 
technological civilization. This change is visible not only 
in the social evolution that is going on, but also in the 
evolution of the various industries and in the measures 
taken to adapt them to present world conditions. The 
visualization of a Latin America persisting in the rudimen- 
tary raw material stage needs correction. 

AGRICULTURE AND MINING 

Agriculture and mining, of course, still constitute the 
main industries of Latin America. 

Though undermanned and, in general, untouched by 
intensive methods, Latin American agriculture has, 
through mere extent of territory and exuberance of soil, 
occupied for many years either the first or the second 
place in the world in the production of corn, sugar, coffee, 
cacao, the third or fourth place in the production of 
tobacco, and one of the front ranks in the production 
of cereals, cattle, and wool. Until overtaken of late years 
by British and Dutch East Indian competition, Brazil 
possessed a virtual monopoly of rubber. Recently, Brazil, 
Peru, and Mexico have become prominent among cotton- 
growing countries. 

53 



54 Changing Industries 

The mineral resources of Latin America continue to 
hold the high place given them by Spanish exploitation 
centuries ago. Mexico now stands first in the world in 
the output of silver and Colombia in that of platinum; 
Bolivia occupies the second rank in the production ot 
tin, Chile in copper, and Mexico in petroleum ; Venezuela 
and Cuba and British Trinidad together lead the world 
in the production of asphalt. Brazil supplied most of 
the diamonds of the world before the rise of the Kimberley 
mines in South Africa, and from the State of Diamantina 
have come such famous gems as the Coroa do Portugal 
(Crown of Portugal), weighing 127 carats, and the 
Estrella do Sul (Southern Star), weighing 2541/2 carats, 
uncut, and when cut 125 carats. The latter, purchased 
by the Eajah of Baroda at the reported extraordinary 
price of $15,000,000, was, as M. Pierre Denis states, "dis- 
covered by a negress engaged in washing clothes at the 
riverside." Bolivia supplies all the bismuth used in the 
world, Brazil most of the thorium, one mine in Peru 
four-fifths of the vanadium, and Colombia practically all 
the fine emeralds. 

In spite of the incessant exploitation of the mines of 
Latin America for the past four centuries, nothing is yet 
known with certainty of their capacity. Vast areas still 
await scientific investigation. Even the possibilities of 
gold and silver mining have not been exhausted nor as- 
certained with precision, and the era of iron and of 
technically important minor metals has barely dawned. 
Whenever entered upon, however, the working of mining 
properties in Latin America is now carried on with high 
efficiency and their proper development is contingent only 
on progressive discoveries. 

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY 

"Were it possible to make the latter statement of Latin 
American agriculture, a truly astounding production 
could safely be predicted. Wherever modern scientific 
methods of agriculture have been applied consistently 
remarkable yields have been secured. Sugar cane in Cuba, 



Changing Industries 55 

according to the Department of Agriculture, Commerce, 
and Labor of the island, averaged last year (1920) a 
gross return of $800 per acre ; and the cane on virgin 
land may be cut without replanting for thirty years. 
Tobacco is planted, grown, and gathered in ninety days. 
Cotton, which is now the third most important crop of 
Peru, furnishes in the Ganete valley an average of 553 
pounds to the acre, and has attained a maximum of over 
1300 pounds in the valley of Lambayeque. Five good 
crops may be obtained without replanting, and the cotton 
in general is of the finest grade. The better class of 
grapes of Mendoza, Argentina, often yield a net profit 
of from $800 to $1000 per acre. In the valleys of Tacna 
Province, Chile, olive-trees exhibit a wonderful fruitful- 
ness, a single tree being reported to have produced 1900 
pounds of olives. 

The degree to which a modern system of cultivation 
and merchandising has expanded the banana industry 
from the humblest beginnings may be gleaned from the 
rise of the United Fruit Company, founded by Mr. Minor 
C. Keith, to a commanding position in the commercial 
world within the short space of some thirty years. A 
similar expansion is possible in some other tropical fruits, 
and especially in the fruits of the temperate and sub- 
tropical zones of southern South America. The business 
methods of the California fruit-growers, if transplanted 
to Chile, Argentina, and southern Brazil, would enable 
those sections of Latin America to supply our markets 
plentifully with peaches, pears, apples, plums, nectarines, 
apricots, melons, and grapes — which mature there during 
our winter and early spring months — and to compete 
strongly in Europe with other fruit-growing countries. 

INTENSIVE AGEICULTUEE 

Under the Incas, the Aztecs, the Mayas, and the 
Spaniards and Portuguese of the olden time, agriculture 
and mining followed a set routine. A fev/ staple crops 
and the precious metals absorbed the attention of natives 
and conquistadores alike. Experiments were, indeed, 



56 Changing Industries 

made by the Spaniards and the Portuguese — to whom we 
have never been just in our appreciation of their gov- 
ernmental policies and their real contributions to Amer- 
ican social and economic progress — but they were rarely 
transformed into an intensive programme. The attitude on 
the whole was that of the peripatetic prospector who 
scratches the surface, gathers what he can easily see, and 
then moves on. In Brazil this attitude resulted in what 
Miss L. E. Elliott calls ''revolutions in industries," by 
reason of which the dyewood, gold, diamond, and other 
promising industries waxed and waned in the past, and, 
to a certain extent, also, the rubber industry is showing 
a marked decline at the present moment. Superlative 
and varied wealth and underpopulation quite naturally 
lead to an extensive rather than an intensive treatment 
of resources. 

To-day, thoughtful Latin Americans realize that it is 
necessary to dig deeper and to place a more solid founda- 
tion under the future. An earnest of their desire to 
modernize their industries is seen in the universal estab- 
lishment of agricultural, mining and engineering, trade 
and vocational schools and in their search for expert 
scientific assistance from abroad. 

Heretofore, the foreign scientific experts called to Latin 
America have come from Europe, and principally from 
Germany. It is gratifying to note that a decided prefer- 
ence is now being shown for scientists and industrial 
investigators from the United States. Now it is Professor 
Edward Green, the American cotton expert, who is chosen 
by the Brazilian Government to classify and standardize 
the best cottons for planting in Brazil and to advise the 
Government as to the most suitable regions for growing 
the different grades : now, it is three American specialists 
in tropical agriculture whom the Government of Ecuador 
asks of the United States Department of Agriculture: 
now, it is several expert American stock judges who are 
invited to Argentina, and whose decisions are accorded 
the highest appreciation: again, it is Professor Nels A. 
Bengston of the University of Nebraska and other Amer- 



Changing Industries 57 

ican geologists whose opinions on oil-lands are eagerly 
requested by Latin American governments and private 
companies. 

An extension of this deference to our judgment is to 
be seen in the sending of Latin American specialists to 
the United States for study and help, as in the case of 
Don Jose A. Vivanco, who has been commissioned by the 
Peruvian Government to negotiate an interchange of 
seeds and cereals between the United States and Peru, 
and in the attendance at our technical schools of large 
numbers of Latin American students, many of whom are 
sent at government expense. 

SALIENT INDUSTRIES 

The Latin American industries in which the world at 
large is to-day showing the greatest interest and in several 
of which modern principles are being most plainly ex- 
hibited are cattle-raising and packing, oil and coal ex- 
ploitation, lumbering, and manufacturing. Some of these 
are new industries, whereas others are of long-standing, 
but are undergoing a radical change. The influence of 
foreign ideas is observable in all of them. Nevertheless, 
it is Latin American enterprise which is making all of 
them possible, and Latin American scientific skill, indus- 
trial acumen, and workmanship which are successfully 
carrying them on. 

Cattle-raising is one of the oldest of industries in Latin 
America, has long been nurtured with especial care in 
Argentina and Uruguay, and yet is on the eve of a new 
epoch. To-day, Argentina has more cattle than any coun- 
try in Europe except Russia, and is, perhaps, not behind 
post-war Russia. Argentina and Brazil together have 
probably more cattle than the United States, since Argen- 
tina's 29,500,000 head in 1915 and Brazil's 30,705,000 in 
1913 have been increasing, while the 61,804,000 head in 
the United States in 1910 diminished to 61,441,000 in 1916, 
and seem likely to keep on decreasing. LT^-uguay and 
Mexico combined surpass the United Kingdom in numbers 
of cattle, and Uruguay alone excels Canada. From the 



58 Changing Industries 

few cattle brought over by the Spaniards, and in many 
cases abandoned on the South American and Mexican 
plains, has sprung the colossal industry which purveys 
meat to the major part of the Western "World: for on 
our own prairies there were no cattle in the early part 
of the last century, and our western herds were established 
from stock taken from the Mexican ranges. 

CATTLE-RAISING IN ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY 

The prominence of Argentina and Uruguay in cattle- 
raising and packing is known in all quarters of the globe. 
Enjoying unequaled pasturage and a benignant climate, 
Argentinian and Uruguayan cattle can hardly help pros- 
pering and increasing to the uttermost limits of the broad 
pampas. The introduction of blooded stock from Eng- 
land, Scotland, and the United States is quickly raising 
the standard of the native strain ; and the care with which 
all the minutiae of registration are followed and the pride 
shown in the ownership of cattle which have taken prizes 
at the wonderful livestock exhibitions make it certain that 
no other nations will soon wrest the palm from Argentina 
and Uruguay. The great respect in which the late Thomas 
Howard, of Boston, has been held in Uruguay for his 
life-long labors in introducing pedigreed stock into 
Uruguay, and the honors paid to his family, which has 
continued his work, testify to the nature of the reigning 
passion in southern South America. Cattle are regal, and 
a whole economic and social evolution is largely condi- 
tioned on their welfare. When an Argentine rancher 
thinks nothing of paying $35,000 and $60,000 for a pure- 
bred bull, or $10,000 for a prize ram, or $150,000 for 
Diamond Jubilee, King Edward VII 's magnificent thor- 
oughbred, we are safe in assuming that cattle-raising has 
left its primitive state and become one of the fine arts. 
Distinction comes to Argentinians and Uruguayans merely 
as a result of their possession of unusual animals, and 
cattle dynasties have been potent social and political 
forces in the history of both Argentina and Uruguay. 

Hitherto in the United States, whenever mention has 





PRIZE WINNERS FROM "THE CAMP. 



Changing Industries 59 

been made of cattle-raising on a large scale in Latin 
America, the only countries named have been the two 
cited above. During the past ten years this impression 
of Argentina's and Uruguay's supremacy has been inten- 
sified by the construction there of frigorificos (packing 
plants) and the purchase of immense tracts of grazing 
land by the Armour, the Swift, the Morris, the Wilson, 
and other American companies. Preceding them by nearly 
half a century, the Liebig company, whose extract of beef 
is a household article, expanded mightily until now hun- 
dreds of thousands of cattle are slaughtered annually at 
Fray Bentos and the Liebig land holdings embrace some- 
thing like five million acres of rich territory. 

Naturally, the region capable of appealing to such 
powerful foreign interests has attracted the widest atten- 
tion. But there is no certainty that it will always remain 
the leader in cattle production, and the signs point to 
the rise of new cattle districts of great promise. 

NEW FIELDS FOR CATTLE-RAISING 

Paraguay and Bolivia, because of their climate and 
excellent pasturage, and Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia 
and Peru, because of their proximity to the United States, 
should thrive as cattle-raising countries. Cattle-raising 
has, in fact, become the principal industry of Paraguay, 
American packing companies are alive to its possibilities, 
and the government is making special efforts to stimulate 
the industry by strict sanitary regulations and by offering 
excellent grazing land at from $1 to $4 an acre. Agricul- 
tural colonies chiefly devoted to cattle-raising are being 
established in Bolivia, and to one of them under the direc- 
tion of Mr. C. Dunbar Smith of Nebraska City, Nebraska, 
a concession of 17,000 square miles is reported to have 
been granted. Mexico now has 20,000 cattle ranches 
valued at $500,000,000 and can provide ample room for 
expansion. Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru are admirably 
adapted to cattle-raising, and their stratepic position 
along the great trade routes which are being fixed by 
the Panama Canal should give them the benefit of com- 



60 Changing Industries 

paratively high prices and low transportation expenses. 
In most of these countries, inducements approaching the 
liberality of the Colombian government, as enacted in the 
following recent law, obtain: 

Any person introducing into the country pure breeds of cattle, 
horses, sheep, pigs, goats for the exclusive purpose of improving 
the native stock will be entitled to a reimbursement from the 
Government for one-third of the value of the animals, including 
all expenses of examination, transportation, feeding, insurance, 
consular invoices, etc. 

Argentinian, Uruguayan, Paraguayan, and Mexican ac- 
tualities and prospects in cattle-raising, nevertheless, im- 
mense as they undoubtedly are, fail to impress the mind 
with that sense of magnitude which ensues from a study 
of the probable career of the cattle industry in Brazil. 

BRAZIL, A COMING CATTLE CENTER 

If, in 1913, Brazilian cattle totaled over thirty million, 
exclusive of sheep, swine, and goats, what may it not 
amount to within a generation in consequence of the great 
activity displayed by the Grovernment, by the numerous 
organizations of cattle-raisers which are springing up, 
and by the huge packing-plants erected by American and 
British interests since the beginning of the European 
War? Within that period. Armour and Company have 
built in Brazil the largest packing house in the world 
at a cost of $10,000,000, and half a dozen British and 
Brazilian firms, in addition to Swift and Company and 
Wilson and Company, have constructed or begun the con- 
struction of important packing plants. 

Kefrigeration is so new a process in Brazil that no 
shipment of frozen meats was made until November, 1914, 
when one ton was sent to England as an experiment. In 
July, 1915, the consignment which left Santos amounted 
to 205,350 pounds. During the subsequent six months, 
over seventeen million pounds of refrigerated meats were 
cleared from the same port: and difring the year 1919, 
55,685 tons of canned and refrigerated beef alone were 
exported from Brazil. 



Changing Industries 61 

If comparison with Argentina is at all permissible, the, 
growth of the industry in Brazil during the next genera- 
tion should prove truly astounding. Buenos Aires made; 
the first shipment of refrigerated beef from Argentina in 
1877 — forty-four years ago: and that shipment consisted 
of only 80 tons. By 1915 Argentinian exports of animals 
and animal products had risen to over $218,000,000, or 
about forty per cent of the total exports. The exports of 
Argentina in 1919 came to $867,823,000 and if the 1915 
ratio just cited has held good, the value of the exports 
of animals and animal products must have been close to 
one-third of a billion dollars — a distinct increase, indeed, 
over the price received for the 80 tons shipped in 1877, 
or the $1680 received for the total exports of refrigerated 
beef in 1885, plus the value of any additional animal 
products exported by Argentina forty-four years ago. 

AMERICAN PACKERS IN BRAZIL 

The new factor cropping out in the modern cattle 
situation in Brazil is that American enterprise has been 
able to enter the field without the handicap of a long 
tradition of "favored nations" to overcome. The packing 
industry started with the Companhia Frigorifica e Pas- 
toril organized at Barretos by Dr. Antonio de Silva Prado 
in 1913 for the provisioning of Sao Paulo with chiUed 
meats, and shortly thereafter the Armours, the Swifts, 
the WUsons made plans to establish packing centers in 
the republic, and especially in the States of Rio Grande 
do Sul and Sao Paulo. 

In equipment, methods, management, and plans for the 
future, the American packers start out with a clean slate. 
Already they are energetically setting about inculcating 
the latest scientific principles of cattle-raising, packing, 
and shipping, improving the native stock by crossing it 
with pure-bred Heref ords or Short horns, getting the most 
out of the by-products, and teaching the value of attrac- 
tive presentation for the market. 

The acquisition of high-priced experts has been one of 
the first steps taken by these immense foreign interests, 



62 Changing Industries 

and should result in the opening of excellent positions for 
qualified graduates of our agricultural colleges. Mr. 
Murdo Mackenzie, a former Texas cattleman, until re- 
cently the manager of the Morungava ranch of the Brazil 
Land, Cattle and Packing Company, which owns five mil- 
lion acres of land in Brazil and about four million in 
Bolivia, was paid £10,000 a year for his technical knowl- 
edge and business ability, and had under him a large staff 
of highly capable Texans and Coloradans. 

Through its natural advantages in climate, extent of 
grazing territory, and river transportation, and through 
American initiative displayed in the industry, Brazil rests 
assured of developing into one of the great cattle-raising 
and packing centers of the world, if not the greatest. 

LATIN America's part in the odyssey of oil 

The petroleum industry presents aspects similar to 
those noted in the cattle industry. Apparently restricted 
to one area, Mexico, before the war, it has been found to 
have ramifications throughout Latin America. Individual 
fortunes have already been made by foreigners from Latin 
American oil, the most remarkable being that of Mr. 
Edward L. Doheny, of San Francisco and Los Angeles, 
president of the Pan American Petroleum and Transport 
Co., the Mexican Petroleum Co., Ltd., the Huasteca Petro- 
leum Co., etc. : and governments have engaged in strenuous 
efforts to secure preferential rights. 

"Without Mexican oil, the British Navy could not have 
functioned freely during the war, and the activity of the 
automobile industry in many countries would be para- 
lyzed. To England, especially, and in no small degree 
to the United States, Latin American oil has come to be 
a most important factor in economic development. 

To the reflective mind, Latin American petroleum offers 
another beautiful illustration of the ability of that "most 
promising of the undeveloped sections of the world," as 
it is called by Mr. 0. P. Austin, statistician of the National 
City Bank of New York and secretary of the National 



Changing Industries 63 

Geographic Society, to supply the world at critical mo- 
ments with what it requires most. 

"When the world hungered for the precious metals, gold 
and silver, with an intensity never before known, Latin 
America oiit of its bountiful stores enriched Spain and the 
rest of Europe, one district alone, that of Potosi in Bolivia, 
yielding about $3,000,000,000 in silver and the gold mines 
of that single country producing the almost equally 
fabulous sum of $2,500,000,000. As cereals, meats, wool, 
rubber, and coffee become primary obsessions of civiliza- 
tion, Latin America took a front rank in those articles. 
Now that petroleum represents one of the world's greatest 
needs, Latin America again comes forward, this time to 
replenish the visibly failing reservoirs of other parts of 
the world: and foreign politics in Latin America, which 
is usually guided by the development of some great native 
resource, is in many of the republics becoming a politics 
of petroleum. 

In the Odyssey of oil in the Western Hemisphere, 
Mexico, of course, has furnished the most thrilling stage 
after the United States. Its production has risen from 
21,188,247 barrels in 1914 to 159,800,000 barrels in 1920. 

The external and internal affairs of the republic have 
been determined to a great extent by the sustained jdeld 
of the oil deposits and the successive discoveries of new 
fields. British and American companies with tremendous 
capitalizations have vied desperately with one another, 
making use of all possible private and governmental agen- 
cies for strengthening their position. The attitude of a 
Mexican president toward foreign petroleum conces- 
sionaires has had more to do with the question of the 
recognition of his administration by the United States 
than anything else. New cities have arisen, new ports 
have been opened, new living conditions have resulted — 
the cost of living in Tampico being probably higher than 
in most of the metropolitan cities of the world — a new 
population of diverse foreign ingredients has t sen created, 
as the direct result of petroleum activity in Mexico. 

But Mexico is not the only great petroliferous area in 



64 Changing Industries 

Latin America, and the epic of oil lias begun to blazon 
forth the merits of other protagonists. According to Mr. 
Eugene Stebinger, of the Geological Department of the 
United States, the amount of oil ultimately available in 
the different countries in which petroleum is obtained in 
considerable quantities, is as follows : 

United States and Alaska 7,000,000,000 barrels 

Mexico 4,525,000,000 " 

Northern South America, including Peru. . 5,730,000,000 " 

Southern South America, including Bolivia 3,550,000,000 " 
Southeastern Russia, southeastern Siberia, 

and the Caucasus region 5,830,000,000 " 

Persia and Mesopotamia 5,820,000,000 " 

In other words, Latin America, on the basis of this cal- 
culation, is regarded by authorities as able to produce 
twice as much oil as the United States and more than 
twice as much as either of the other great divisions men- 
tioned. Since operations in Latin America outside of 
Mexico are still in an embryonic state, the oil history of 
Mexico should at some future date repeat itself in such 
countries as Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, 
Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Central America, 
and the West Indies. 

Without doubt, the procedure followed in Mexico by 
individuals and by the great industrial governments will 
be duplicated in these countries. The outcome, however, 
will vary with each country, in some coinciding with the 
results which have been observed in Mexico, but in others 
having a totally different complexion because of the es- 
tablishment of government oil reservations and the desire 
to keep the profits of the business in the hands of 
native sons. 

A concomitant of such action will be a new bent in 
the Latin American diplomacy of the United States, Eng- 
land, and one or two other great industrial countries 
whose need of oil is now becoming acute and impossible 
of satisfaction through the supplies within their own 
borders or at present under their control. 

From Mexico southward, oil is found in varying quan- 



Changing Industries 65 

titles in every one of the Latin American republics, in- 
cluding the Central American countries and Cuba. Almost 
daily, new discoveries are announced, and each discovery 
leads to the formation of numerous companies, occasion- 
ally inspired by nothing stronger than hope and the 
eagerness to participate in the most rapid and dazzling 
of alchemies. 

Usually, exploration by private companies is welcomed 
by the governments, but sometimes, as in Guatemala, the 
government exercises strict control over all oil existing 
within its jurisdiction. There is a growing tendency, 
however, on the part of the governments of all the smaller 
countries to add to their revenue by levying a royalty 
on the returns of companies to whom concessions have 
been granted. Thus, in Costa Rica, the government will 
receive ten per cent of the yield of the Cahuita deposits, 
which are expected to have a minimum flow of 50,000 
barrels per day and will, at present prices, add $25,000 
daily to the national treasury, and a concession on the 
basis of a royalty to the government of seven per cent of 
the crude product obtained in the provinces of Limon, 
Puntarenas, and Guanacaste has been made to the 
Standard Oil Company of California. 

In Panama an American firm has signed a lease for 
a period of 90 years for large oil holdings in the Province 
of Chiriqui. Three oil concessions are in force in Hon- 
duras. Cuban and American interests are vigorously 
prosecuting the search for oil in Cuba, and the Compania 
Cubana de Petroleo de Vuelta Aba jo has acquired several 
valuable properties in the province of Pinar del Rio. In 
these countries, many of the contracts stipulate that the 
favored companies shall invest a certain amount of capital 
within a specified period, and this commonly means almost 
immediately large local expenditures, benefiting the par- 
ticular district and the country in general, in the employ- 
ment of labor, the construction of roads and railways, 
docks, and telephones, the purchase of such supplies as 
do not have to be imported, and the maintenance of the 
plant, 



66 Changing Industries 

In many particulars, even in these smaller republics 
needful of ready money and inexperienced in oil tech- 
nology, legislation is seriously retarding oil development 
by the imposition of heavy restrictions and too high a 
rate of taxation on individuals and companies taking up 
leases. The short-sightedness of the policy is patent, for 
it discourages enterprise, sets a definite limit on expecta- 
tions, and creates an impression of narrow local selfish- 
ness. The Latin American penchant for making an ad- 
ministrative monopoly of the chief public utilities, or 
resources — a survival " of outworn Spanish practices — ^is 
particularly deplorable in those republics in which public 
opinion is not as yet strong enough to check the ambitions 
of a dominating party or political leader. 

Those republics, too, which are animated by the praise- 
worthy motives of promoting national industries through 
national channels and of utilizing their petroleum wealth 
with the aim of reducing the taxes of their inhabitants 
are in reality condemning to inactivity one of their most 
precious latent resources. Though desirous as never be- 
fore of attracting foreign capital for national develop- 
ment, not only Colombia and Bolivia, but even Peru and 
Argentina are placing serious obstacles, either through 
difficult regulations or through prohibitive taxes, in the 
path of oil interests perfectly willing to comply with rea- 
sonable requirements. 

The example of the shipment of Mexican oil to the 
Russian port of Batoum, which is the normal outlet for a 
vast petroliferous area, but cannot supply its own needs 
because of the paralyzing oil policy of the Russian Govern- 
ment, should point a moral to many of the Latin American 
republics. The monopolistic attitude of old Spain and of 
some modern Latin American politicians is one of the 
gravest deterrents to progress in some portions of Latin 
America. 

Nevertheless, in spite of appearances, the petroleum 
policy of Argentina, and perhaps of Peru, has many 
merits, may prove as advantageous to everybody in- 
terested in oil in the long run as ours, and contains co- 



Changing Industries 67 

operative features new to that branch of industry. That 
neither government excludes private exploitation is 
demonstrated by the negotiations of Argentina with Lord 
Cowdray whereby $25,000,000 of British capital is to be 
provided for developing and extending the borings at 
Comodoro Rivadavia, Territory of Chubut, by the forma- 
tion of several Swedish companies for operations in the 
same field, by the organization of the Compania Inicial 
de Petroleo de Mendoza to work deposits in the Province 
of Mendoza, near the boundary of Neuquen, by the ac- 
tivities in Peru of the London and Pacific Petroleum 
Company, which has a total of 1314 wells at Lagunitas, 
Negritos, and La Brea, and the largest refinery on the 
West Coast south of Panama, at Talara, and by the recent 
acquisition by the Braden interests of over 5,000,000 acres 
of petroliferous territory in Bolivia. 

The criticisms leveled at the Argentine Government 
for its segregation of the Comodoro Rivadavia fields and 
certain districts in the Territory of Neuquen as national 
reservations apparently leave out of account the fact that 
private firms can establish themselves just beyond the 
government reservations and that, though all oil lands 
may become State property, the State may, and does, 
empower private organizations to function, giving the 
preference, wherever possible, to those important to the 
public welfare. 

The declaration of Dr. Tomas A. Le Breton before the 
American Petroleum Institute at Washington presents in 
its true light the position of the Argentine Government 
and shows that practical necessity, and not hostility to 
private enterprise, underlies the measures which have 
been adopted. Nobody disposed to a fair appreciation 
.of international actions can take exception to the follow- 
ing reasons which led to the establishment of the oil 
reservations in the districts of Comodoro Rivadavia and 
Neuquen : 1. the lack of interest in the distant Argentine 
fields when, in 1912, government agents in sef'rch of water 
accidentally discovered the oil deposits; 2. the deficiency 
in coal and the necessity of depending on England and 



68 Changing Industries 

on the United States without adequate assurance of its 
delivery on time or in sufficient quantities; 3. the fuel 
requirements of the navy, the national railways, and the 
department of public service and sanitation. 

Dr. Le Breton might have fortified his argument, too, 
by citing President Eoosevelt's opinion, courageously 
uttered in the face of hostile private interests, that mineral 
fields, like the forests and navigable streams, should be 
treated as public utilities. 

So little inclined, indeed, is the Argentine Governmeni; 
to restrict the output of petroleum that it has recently 
voted two hundred and fifty thousand pesos for investiga- 
tions in the Plaza Huincul fields in the south of the 
Province of Buenos Aires, has nearly doubled the produc- 
tion of the Comodoro Rivadavia deposits in 1921 as com- 
pared with the record yield of 1920, is contracting for 
new storage tanks and tank steamers, is encouraging the 
borings of private operators in territory adjacent to the 
Government areas, and is planning soon to become an 
exporter of petroleum to foreign markets. It is going 
even further and entering into arrangements with the 
Bolivian Government to carry out railway projects for 
the exploitation of the immense oil belt extending south- 
ward from the eastern states of Bolivia into the adjacent 
provinces of Argentina and northward into Peru. 

Bolivia, though potentially one of the richest petroleum 
regions in Latin America, has not exported any oil, owing 
to a natural and an artificial barrier. 

The natural barrier is formed by the mountains on the 
west, toward the Pacific, and by the forests of the Amazon 
and the desert-lands of the Gran Chaco on the east and 
southeast. The artificial barrier has been erected by the 
Government itself. 

From its reasonable requirement in 1916 of a land-tax 
iand ten per cent of the gross output of petroleum, it has, 
in 1920, joined the more short-sighted countries in petro- 
leum regulations by increasing its share of the gross 
output to twelve and a half per cent, by specifying that 
twenty per cent of the net profits from deposits on fiscal 



Changing Industries 69 

lands shall be paid into the departmental treasury, by- 
reserving the right, as United States Trade Commissioner 
W. L. Sehurz points out, **to expropriate the oil land 
to such an extent as may be deemed necessary to supply 
the domestic demand for oil, 20 years after date of the 
contract," and by expressly stating that *'At the termina- 
tion of 50 to 66 years of working by the concessionaire, 
such oil lands as may not have been expropriated shall 
revert to the Bolivian Government," together with the 
equipment installed by the concessionaire. 

Formidable as these conditions are, they have not 
frightened off all exploitation. Chilean interests, which 
disposed of a large portion of their holdings to American 
capitalists, still control some 300,000 acres of oil-bearing 
lands in the Beni Valley and along the Arica-La Paz Eail- 
way. The Anglo-Persian Petroleum Company is prepar- 
ing to work its concession in the Province of Caupolican, 
which belongs to the Department of La Paz, and consti- 
tutes a petroliferous zone of over two million acres. One 
American corporation, which has vast copper properties 
in Chile, has paid nearly $4,000,000 for the greater pari 
of the five million acres in the Lagunillas field previously 
held by the Chilean interests, and another American com- 
pany has a concession of several million acres in the De- 
partment of Santa Cruz which it is to operate with an 
invested capital of $10,000,000. 

Two interesting facts worthy of special note are that 
Argentinian and Chilean capitalists are actively occupied 
in foreign oil investments and that in Bolivia, as in Mexico 
and Peru, American and British financial organizations 
have entered the field while it is in a pioneer state and 
are likely to hold their dominating position in these great- 
est of Latin American petroliferous areas. 

Venezuela and Colombia are both particularly well 
situated for rapid development in petroleum production 
and exportation by reason of their proximity to the 
shipping route established by the Panama Canal, and are 
both rich in oil. American interests, while not as 
prominent as yet in Venezuela as British interests, cannot 



70 Changing Industries 

long remain inactive in the face of the possibilities of the 
Lake Maracaibo region, which, it is predicted by some 
authorities, is destined to rival the Tampico fields. As 
earlj/- as 1910, English capitalists began negotiations for 
a concession of three thousand square miles east and west 
of Lake Maracaibo, and have since secured the grant 
and drilled a number of wells. Subsequently, another 
grant of the same size was obtained in the State of Falcon, 
northeast of the lake and fronting on the Caribbean Sea, 
and another company formed, both the concessions men- 
tioned resulting from the privilege given to the represen- 
tative of the General Asphalt Company to explore almost 
half of the northern section of the country and to choose 
districts for exploitation. Other oil regions have been 
opened up, production is being carried on at a satisfactory 
rate — 500,000 barrels of petroleum having been produced 
in Venezuela in 1920 — local refineries have been built, a 
large refinery has I)een constructed by an English cor- 
poration on the Dutch island of Curasao, off the coast 
of Venezuela, the English concessionaires are planning to 
invest over $50,000,000 in their Venezuelan properties as 
soon as an agreement can be reached with regard to cer- 
tain restrictions, and the increasing number of auto- 
mobiles, for which better roads are being laid out, and 
the railroads are already consuming in considerable quan- 
tities the oil actually produced. 

The indications along the Magdalena Eiver in Colombia 
point to the existence of one of the major petroleum areas 
of Latin America, the oil regions in the Department of 
Santander alone having a length of one hundred miles 
and a width of sixty miles. In this district, the Tropical 
Oil Company, an American corporation, is energetically 
prosecuting exploration and production and is obligated 
by the terms of its agreement to maintain a refinery of 
sufficient capacity to supply the needs of the country, 
to turn over to the Government ten per cent of its gross 
products, and to work the deposits permanently, under 
penalty of recission of the contract. Its chief operations 
are at present being carried on in the neighborhood of 



Changing Industries 71 

Barranca Bermeja, Santander, to which town it has laid 
pipe lines. Of the thirty-seven foreign companies which 
have already acquired oil lands in Colombia — the most 
important being the Tropical Oil Company, the Interna- 
tional Petroleum Company, the Carib Syndicate, and the 
Cities Service — the majority are sponsored by United 
States capital and managed by American experts. 

Taking into account Colombia's advantageous location 
near the Panama Canal, the feasibility of transporting 
the petroleum by way of the Magdalena River — the 
steamers on which will undoubtedly be converted to the 
oil-burning type — and the short distance of the country 
from the United States, the future of Colombian petroleum 
may already be considered on a stable footing. 

The insatiable demand for oil by commerce and by 
governments foreshadows unusual activity in the larger 
regions already discussed and in the less developed but 
potential fields of Ecuador, Uruguay, Cuba, and Brazil 
within a short period. 

If the report of a Rumanian engineer, who states that 
he has discovered oil deposits on the island of Nova 
Borpeba, in the jurisdiction of the State of Bahia, Brazil, 
capable of producing half as much petroleum as the 
eastern portion of the United States, is accurate, Brazil 
may surprise the world again by the variety and magni- 
tude of its resources. 

Besides forcing the attention of foreigners on Latin 
America and compelling Latin American governments to 
exploit their petroleum regions or to permit foreign 
capital to exploit them, the presence of oil in large 
amounts in almost every Latin American republic offers 
a solution to a problem vital to the future welfare of 
Latin America as a whole. 

The evolution of Latin America can never be complete 
without a high development of the manufacturing indus- 
tries: and these industries are dependent on fuel, water- 
power, and iron. The principal countries arc abundantly 
supplied with the means for creating water-power, and 
Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay have under consideration 



72 Changing Industries 

an international power plant on the Uruguay River, where 
2,500,000,000 kilowatt hours per annum representing an 
energy equivalent to that of 3,000,000 tons of coal, could 
be developed. Many of the republics have vast iron de- 
posits. One section of Cuba contains 300,000,000 tons 
of excellent ore, the Tofo district of Chile shows 100,- 
000,000 tons of Bessemer-grade ore and the Atacama 
region, 500,000,000 tons, and Brazil's deposits have been 
estimated at 4,000,000,000 tons. Venezuela and Cuba both 
ship in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 tons of iron ore 
annually, but the quantity is insignificant when compared 
with the extant wealth of the mineral, and is held to such 
low figures primarily because of poor transportation and 
the small amount of coal mined. Until the water-power 
is created and coal made available in sufficient quantities, 
oil may serve as the transition motive-power for manu- 
facturing and transportation purposes, to be followed 
later by the development of coal. 

COAL EST LATIN AMERICA 

Latin America at present derives most of its coal from 
Great Britain and the United States: but it cannot con- 
tinue to rely for such an essential product on the foreign 
supply if its industries, which are beginning to loom large 
in its economic life, are to fiourish. The war has taught 
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile that during world 
crises they may be shut off absolutely from coal receipts 
from abroad, and that the price paid even in normal 
times may prove an insupportable tax on industries. In 
1919 Peruvian consumers bought 56,761 tons of coal, 
chiefly from Great Britain, for $2,233,082, or at the rate 
of forty dollars a ton, in spite of the local production 
of more than one-third of a million tons. In the interior 
of Bolivia, foreign coal brings as high as seventy or 
seventy-five dollars a ton, yet must be purchased for the 
prosecution of work in the mining industry. 

A natural conclusion would be that Nature has omitted 
one of its greatest gifts from its bounty to Latin America, 
and that manufacturing must either be subjected 



Changing Industries 73 

permantly to the hazards of a foreign supply or to the 
rate of progress in the utilization of petroleum or water- 
power. The situation, however, is not quite as bad as 
that. 

Coal exists, in fact, in most of the Latin American 
countries, and should eventually take care of most of 
the home markets, particularly since its use for domestic 
heating purposes is almost unknown and, though con- 
venient during the cooler months in the southern part 
of South America, not an absolute requirement, and thus 
far, not a national habit. 

The most important deposits of coal are found in 
Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. There is no reason 
why these districts, lying at accessible intervals along 
the whole length of Latin America, should not gradually 
furnish coal to the neighboring countries, as Brazil began 
to do in 1916 by initial shipments to Argentina. Mexico 
with an annual production of about one million tons and 
extensive deposits nearly untouched, has already reached 
the stage when it can plan to ship coal to other countries, 
and several companies in Coahuila have lately sought the 
permission of the Government to export some of their 
surplus product to the United States. 

While no unusual claims are made by well informed 
persons for the coal resources of Latin America, its de- 
posits of this combustible are recognized by them to be 
much more extensive and to cover a much greater area 
than the general public has any conception of. 

Coal is now mined in different parts of Mexico, and the 
visible supply of one section in the State of Coahuila is 
authoritatively estimated at 300,000,000 tons : it is v/idely 
distributed over Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua: 
and new discoveries, such as the finding of a considerable 
deposit in the Department of Chontales, Nicaragua, are 
made from time to time, though little prospecting takes 
place. Western Venezuela possesses excellent coal in 
quantity, the bed of Lake Maracaibo is said to contain 
a large area of coal, and in 1919 the mines of the State 
of Anzoategui produced 25,559,490 kilos. 



74 Changing Industries 

Colombia is an especially promising field. The coal 
deposits extend along the western side of the republic 
from north to south and take in the regions of the San 
Jorge River and the Cauca Valley. They are being workea 
in the Departments of El Valle, Cundinamarca, and along 
the bank of the San Jorge, and constitute a much more 
economical supply than can be obtained from the United 
States or Great Britain. On the San Jorge, the cost of 
mining is not above $.50 per ton, and the cost of barging 
to Barranquilla not over $6 per ton, thus enabling local 
operators to furnish coal to Barranquilla and the rail- 
roads of the district at a lower price than is now being 
paid in our Middle Western states. Many of the deposits 
are quite near the coast, and will unquestionably become 
increasingly valuable with the construction of several 
railroads already projected and the demand by ships tak- 
ing the Panama route. So thoroughly convinced are some 
British experts of the bright prospects awaiting the coal- 
mining districts of Colombia that they have ceased to 
regard the country as an important market for British 
coal. 

The interior of Ecuador contains extensive coal fields 
in which little work has been done. Peru's coal deposits 
include much anthracite, the best being found in the 
Huayday district: and the Cerro de Pasco, Yauri, Huan- 
cayo, Chimbote, and Moquegua regions either produce or 
will soon be producing most of the Peruvian coal used 
for commercial purposes. In 1903 only 36,920 tons were 
produced, but by 1917 the output had risen to 353,595 
tons — a striking increase, considering the small amount 
of attention which coal exploitation receives. Most of the 
production is now consumed by the mining industry and 
by the Peruvian and British navies : but the establishment 
of more manufacturing industries will necessarily stimu- 
late coal-mining, and the opening of coal reserves will 
without doubt encourage the upbuilding of more in- 
dustries. 

How plentiful and close to the surface coal is in some 
portions of Peru is suggested by an observation noted by 



Changing Industries 75 

Mr. C. W. Domville-Fife and other travelers: **A eurioiis 
sight, which further demonstrates the extraordinary 
abundance of coal in this region, may occasionally be 
seen from the decks of passing steamers — the waves beat- 
ing against the cliffs and rolling back blackened by coal 
dust." 

How much coal will ultimately be discovered in Brazil 
cannot even be guessed at now, on account of the 
enormous extent of territory still unexplored. But it is 
actually being mined in considerable quantities in the 
southern states and will awaken keen interest if the high 
price of United States and British coal continues much 
longer. Even if the plans for harnessing the tremendous 
water-power of the rivers and falls should materialize 
within a short time — a great deal of which has been 
accomplished, resulting in the electrification not only of 
populous cities but also of obscure villages in remote dis- 
tricts — the demand for coal will continue to be heavy, 
and the growing industries and the increasing number of 
railroad lines are scarcely likely to remain forever at the 
mercy of foreign coal, so often intermittent because of 
nation-wide strikes, and sometimes almost absolutely 
unobtainable. 

The foremost Latin American country in the exploita- 
tion of coal, though not, perhaps, in the amount of its 
coal reserves, is Chile: and the attention paid to this 
industry has had vital national consequences. Before 
the construction of the Panama Canal, Chile was so far 
from Great Britain and the United States that its navy, 
which has made it the preponderating power on the "West 
Coast, and its railroads could not have functioned effec- 
tively if they had been obliged to rely solely on foreign 
coal supplies. Chile was, therefore, driven to developing 
fuel deposits of its own. 

Fortunately, the existence of the coal mines at Lota 
was early known, and their working dates back to 1852. 
Since that time, coal has been mined along the whole 
coastal region of the southern half of the republic, the 
•deposits at Lota, where the galleries extend for half a 



76 Changing Industries 

mile under the sea, and at Coronel, being the most 
celebrated. In recent years, the coal exploration has gone 
as far south as Loreto, near Punta Arenas, and as far 
north as the Aconcagua region, with excellent results.' 
Over 1,000,000 tons of coal are now produced annually 
in Chile, and the chances are that this output will be 
greatly increased, especially since the purchase by S 
Japanese syndicate, which owns extensive iron-ore de- 
posits in northern Chile, of valuable properties in the 
vicinity of Concepcion. The coal deposits in the Province 
of Arauco are estimated at over 1,800,000,000 tons. 

In general the coal of Latin America, though not of 
as good quality as Welsh or American coal, except in 
some parts of Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela, is capable 
when properly exploited of providing for most of the 
needs of the important mining and manufacturing coun- 
tries, and may, on the North and West Coasts, prove of 
high significance to foreign navies and merchant vessels. 

LUMBER 

Among the Latin American industries resting on vast 
resources of the unexploited basic material, the lumber 
industry, hitherto passed over lightly in discussions of 
Latin America, deserves a paragraph or two. 

To all intents and purposes, the general public, when 
it has thought at all of the illimitable forests of Latin 
America, has viewed them as picturesque natural adorn- 
ments or as serious obstacles to the building of lines of 
communication. It rarely gives them a moment's reflec- 
tion as the potential source of a huge, profitable, and 
necessary industry, and appears totally unaware that they 
are now being utilized on a large scale in construction 
work, in various manufactures, and in preliminary experi- 
mental studies for the production of paper pulp. 

Lumber for construction purposes has heretofore been 
imported into Latin America principally from the United 
States, Canada, Norway, and Sweden. Prior to the war, 
South America was our most valued customer for lumber, 
but at present seems to be yielding ground rapidly to the 



Changing Industries 77 

West Indies, whose imports of lumber from the United 
States have risen from $4,916,335 in 1913 to $12,212,352 
in 1919. This phenomenon might be explained by the 
high cost of the lumber itself, by the world-wide scarcity 
of that commodity, by inadequate shipping facilities, and 
by excessive transportation charges : yet some of the con- 
ditions are no worse, relatively, than before, direct ship- 
ping from the United States is more numerous than ever, 
and nothing reasonable beyond the supposition that South 
America is producing more lumber and buying less can 
account for the very real decrease in our lumber exports 
to the South American republics. The diminution in the 
volume of lumber purchased from the United States by 
a few Latin American countries, as shown below, is much 
larger than the figures indicate because of the rise in 
money values: 

Lumber exported from the United States to 

1913 1919 

Brazil $1,657,965 $238,142 

Chile 864,728 316,061 

Colombia 72,476 53,456 

Venezuela 75,573 58,375 

These countries, as it happens, are just entering on what 
appears to be a new era in lumbering. Brazil, which has 
incalculable stores of Parana pine and precious tropical 
woods, exported to Argentina and Uruguay 150,021 tons 
of timber, notably pine, in 1918 as contrasted with 30,719 
tons in 1915 : and its production for the home market has 
been proportionately large. The southern portion of Chile, 
in the environs of Valdivia and Llanquihue, is a beehive 
of lumber activity, with saw-mills along the railroad and 
huge stocks of the manufactured product awaiting ship- 
ment. The industry is mainly in the hands of the German 
colonists and is carried on with proverbial Teutonic sys- 
tem and energy. Much of the timber here, as elsewhere 
in Chile, consists of the alerce, or Chilean pine, often two 
hundred feet high and from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, 
cypress, cedar, walnut, and beech, and other native varie- 
ties suitable for ship-building and general construction. 



78 Changing Industries 

In 1916 the Chilean Government made a contract with 
Dr. Karl Schwalbe, of the Royal Forestal Academy of 
Prussia, for an exhaustive study of the value of the white 
coigue — a splendid tree resembling the beech — for the mak- 
ing of paper pulp : but the war interrupted the negotia- 
tions. Interest, however, has lately been revived in the 
project, owing to the shortage and high cost of the raw 
material used in the manufacture of paper and to the 
large consumption of paper, cardboard, and other pulp 
products in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Argentinian 
capitalists are seeking the permission of the Chilean Gov- 
ernment to cut the raw material for manufacture in Argen- 
tina, and it cannot be long before Chile will be supplying 
paper and articles of paper pulp from its thousands of 
square miles of usable timber to its neighbors and perhaps 
to foreign countries. 

The Government is distinctly favorable to the develop- 
ment of its timber lands, and American lumber companies 
and paper mills might well follow the example of our 
packers, such as the Armours and the Swifts, or our mine 
operators, such as the Guggenheims and the Bethlehem 
Steel Corporation, in establishing themselves in the south- 
ern part of the South American continent. 

That the utilization of the forest resources of Latin 
America, formerly neglected except for the dyewoods, the 
medicinal barks, the quebracho used in tanning, and the 
mate tree, from the leaves of which Paraguay tea — the 
most popular beverage of southern South America — is 
obtained, has become a source of concern to Latin Amer- 
ican governments and to companies having interest in 
Latin America, is visible in such facts as those detailed 
below. 

The Guatemalan Government has, during the present 
year, invited bids for the cutting of extensive tracts of 
mahogany and cedar, each contract to cover 50,000 trees. 
The Argentine Minister of Agriculture, in view of the 
importation of 19,000 metric tons of wood pulp and 43,000 
metric tons of newsprint paper into the republic, has 
initiated a scientific study of the great forests, which, 



Chunging Industries 79 

contrary to the common belief, the country possesses, 
with the object of stimulating the local manufacture of 
newspaper stock. Uruguay is occupied in a compre- 
hensive scheme of afforestation and has decreed a gold 
medal and a bonus of three thousand dollars to Mr. 
Henry Burnett, the British vice-consul at Maldonado, for 
his introduction of over ten thousand maritime pines. 
The Grace Company operates large lumber mills in 
Bolivia, various foreign interests control saw-mills in the 
upper Sinu and Choco territory of Colombia, and the 
Mexican Government has granted a concession of about 
40,000 acres of good timber-land in the State of Chihuahua 
in which, it is expected, United States capital will play 
the leading part. 

Houses entirely built of black walnut or mahogany may 
still be seen in some districts of Peru, forest lands may 
yet be bought there for slightly more than twenty-five 
ceiits an acre, and holdings such as that in the Territory 
of Misiones, Argentina, containing 416,800 acres of 
wooded lands covered with Araucanian pines sixty-five 
feet high, may for a while continue to be offered at about 
two dollars an acre: but in the course of a few decades 
incidents of this sort will be rareties. 

In the early years of the 18th century, [observes Professor 
Bernard Moses], even after the port of Buenos Au'es had been 
opened to the extent of admitting two small vessels annually, an 
ox was worth $1, a sheep from 3 to 4 cents, and a mare 10 cents. 

From such insignificant beginnings has sprung the 
enormous animal industry which has enriched the whole 
southern half of the continent of South America. The 
forest reserves of Latin America, awaiting only transpor- 
tation, are destined to pass through a similar evolution. 
In addition to its tropical woods, Latin America has al- 
most inexhaustible supplies of the timber of the temperate 
zones which is growing scarcer in the United States and 
Europe. 

An impartial observer, watching the actual trend of 
developments in the major industries of cattle-raising, 



80 Changing Industries 

petroleum exploitation, coal-mining, and lumbering 
treated above, would not hesitate to declare that they 
are undergoing a swift transformation which will soon 
place them on the level of industries in the more advanced 
countries and that on their progress depends much of the 
future comfort and industrial activity of the Western 
World. 



CHAPTER IV 
MANUFACTURING AND LABOR 

More than one loyal Latin American professes to see 
grave dangers in the growing industrialism of the south- 
ern republics. The unsettled conditions of some of the 
crowded industrial centers of Europe have been repro- 
duced in Latin American cities, "undesirables" have 
gained entrance, strikes have become frequent and are 
affecting the national life as a whole, and the simple 
habits of an agricultural age are in many places being 
subverted by the complex moral and physical modifica- 
tions of a machine-using, factory era. 

There are many, too, who are skeptical about Latin 
America's ability to compete in the industries with the 
United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan and 
are thoroughly convinced that the manufacturing ambi- 
tions of some of the countries are futile and unprofitable. 
They would welcome a general acceptance of agriculture 
as the predestined and permanent occupation of Latin 
America. It is their belief that Latin America should 
continue indefinitely as the land of raw materials. 

Much may, indeed, be said for their side of the case. 
The European War proved conclusively that the ultimate 
power resides in agriculture and its attendant basic sup- 
plies and exploded the fallacy — ^which appears to be com- 
monly held under the Western scheme of civilization — 
that some great virtue inheres in the rapid using up of 
natural stores, such as fuel, minerals, grains, and the like. 
If Latin America could remain the land of vast resources 
in raw materials for a few more centuries it would unques- 
tionably hold the fate of the United States i*nd a large 
part of Europe in its hands. 

But it is an undeniable fact that Latiii America is 

81 



82 Manufacturing and Labor 

gradually moving toward an epoch of industrialism, and 
that some of the countries which form a part of it have 
already crossed the edge of the charmed circle. The 
reasons are numerous, of course, and the tendency is prac- 
tically inevitable. The Latin America of to-day is in con- 
tact with the rest of the world ; its inhabitants are coming 
increasingly from all sections of the globe, with definite 
attainments in certain branches of manufacturing or 
farming and seeking certain kinds of opportunities; its 
capitalists are forever on the watch to invest their money 
in profitable enterprises; the desire to be self-sufficient 
actuates several of the republics; and last, but not least, 
the effort of machine-making countries to sell Latin 
[America their products stimulates industrial pursuits. 

Over and above all, the economic doctrine that local 
raw materials ought, whenever possible, to be manufac- 
tured on the ground, applies as well to Latin America as 
to any other part of the world. Without manufacturing, 
many of the natural resources, such as water-power, com- 
bustibles, iron, nitrates, remain dormant and of no 
appreciable service to humanity, and some industries of 
the nature of cattle-raising could not be carried on prac- 
tically on any other than a highly organized manufactur- 
ing basis. 

Latin American statesmen and financiers, most of whom 
are as thoroughly versed in world currents and as far- 
seeing as our own political and financial leaders, com- 
prehend clearly the next stage in the development of the 
more advanced countries. 

Instead of advising capital from your United States to invest 
in lands for agriculture [President Barros-Luco, of Chile, declared 
to Mr. Roger Babson], I advise them to consider manufacturing 
possibilities in Chile. Next to mining, Chile must look to manu- 
facturing for future growth. I believe that Chile is to become 
the great manufacturing center of South America. Here we 
have iron, coal, timber, water power, chemicals, wool, and all 
the raw materials. I believe that your people, instead of trying 
to sell us goods, should come down here and build mills. Give 
Chile a market for her nitrates, copper, and iron, together with 
capital to build mills, factories, and ships. In such a case, Chile 



Manufacturing and Labor ■ 83 

will become a great industrial country, an exporter instead of 
an importer. 

Certain staple products of Latin America have always 
presupposed large manufacturing establishments, the 
principal ones being sugar, tobacco, coffee, cereals, cattle, 
and minerals, and huge sums of money have been invested 
by citizens of the countries and foreigners in magnificent 
plants technically perfect and administered with the 
utmost efficiency. The mention of some of these may give 
a faint idea of the prevalence and capacity of the indus- 
trial plants connected with the staple products referred 
to above, which are situated all over the length and 
breadth of Latin America, and of the economic and social 
influence which they must wield in view of the wages 
paid and the example in modern methods which they set 
to their own workmen and to neighboring concerns. 

A few among them are the Cuba- American Sugar Co., 
with an authorized capital of $20,000,000, owning 367,000 
acres of land, eight factories, 2 refineries, 336 miles of 
railroads, brickyards, electric light and water supply 
plants, etc.; the Azucarera Argentina, with a capital of 
$1,500,000 ; the South Porto Rico Sugar Co., with a capital 
of $8,000,000, controlling plantations and factories at 
Guanica and other points in Porto Rico and a plantation 
of 35,000 acres in the Dominican Republic; the British 
and Argentine Meat Co., capitalized at $10,000,000; the 
Liebig Extract of Meat Co., capitalized at $8,000,000, with 
lands and factories in Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia ; 
the Mexican National Packing Co., capitalized at $12,- 
750,000, and holding government concessions in the live 
stock and meat industries; the Argentina Tobacco Co., 
Ltd., capitalized at $9,816,330; the Braden Copper Mines 
Co., capitalized at $2,332,030, and operating m Chile ; the 
German-American Coffee Co., capitalized at $1,000,000, 
with estates in Mexico ; the Santa Rosa Milling Co., Ltd., 
capitalized at $2,500,000, and carrying on a flour milling 
business at Callao, Peru, and Concepcion, Chiie. 

In Argentina there are to-day about 800 flour mills; 
in Cuba about 200 large sugar factories, and in Brazil, 



84 Manufacturing and Labor 

about 140; in all the countries there are innumerable 
tobacco factories, the Cuban establishments elaborating 
tremendous quantities of cigars and cigarettes, and the 
Buen Tono Company of Mexico alone turning out about 
20,000,000 cigarettes daily; and in Argentina, Uruguay, 
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, scores of packing 
houses and refrigerating plants, employing armies of men 
and using the most approved modern machinery, form 
industrial settlements of no inconsiderable size. The step 
from the production of the raw material to the manu- 
facture of the finished article was necessarily taken earl^ 
in these industries. 

COTTON-GROWING AND COTTON-MANUFACTURING IN BRAZIL 

New industries, in addition to the multiplication of 
manufacturing establishments related to the traditional 
staple products, are now coming to the fore in Latin 
America, and some of them have already reached large 
proportions. The cotton manufacturing industry, of com- 
paratively late origin, stands preeminent in the more 
recent industrial development. 

In almost every country of Latin America where cotton 
is raised, it appears to be the settled policy of the govern- 
ment to foster local manufacturing. This is accomplished 
chiefly through a high protective tariff which enables 
manufacturers to undersell their foreign competitors. 

The Brazilian import duty of 7.27 cents a pound on 
raw cotton — the highest cotton tariff in the world — is 
an effective aid not only to cotton-growers, but also to 
cotton manufacturers, and is evidently not levied, as are 
most import duties in Latin America, for revenue only. 
Its industrial value is seen in the expanding dimensions 
of cotton manufacturing as opposed to the leisurely 
growth of cotton culture. Therein, it may be observed, 
lies in major part the explanation of the marked decrease 
in cotton exports in several of the Latin American 
republics: and the same reason holds good for apparent 
decreases in production in other branches. 

The reader who is aware that in 1872 Brazil exported 



Manufacturing and Labor 85 

173,115,500 pounds of cotton and notes that its exports 
of that crop amounted to only 1,960,000 pounds in 1915 
is led to infer that Brazilian cotton-raising has almost 
gone to smash. The progress, in truth, has been much 
slower than might have been expected. The 199,040,000 
pounds raised in 1913, the last normal year before the 
war, do not represent any great advance during the forty- 
one years since 1872, and the figures for 1915 (137,456,000 
pounds) show an actual drop, due in a measure to after- 
war conditions. But what is really significant is that 
the total exports of cotton in 1915 did not exceed the 
meager figure of 1,960,000 pounds (11,125 Brazilian bales 
of 176 pounds each), thus leaving 135,496,000 pounds for 
home consumption. At this rate, two alternatives face 
Brazil now: either the lowering of the cotton tariff, so 
as to admit the raw material for its established mills, 
or greater stimulation to cotton-growing and an extension 
of the cotton-growing area. 

The number of spinning spindles reported in Brazil for 
the half year ending January 31, 1921 was 1,500,000, plac- 
ing Brazil in the same class with Belgium, Switzerland 
and China, and ahead of Austria and Canada. Over 
three hundred fabric-weaving factories manufactured 
cloths of various kinds in 1915 and employed some 75,000 
hands. One factory near Pernambuco produces over 
1,500,000 yards of cotton cloth per month and distributes 
its output all over Brazil through the medium of more 
than eighty stores controlled by the company, while five 
mills in the Federal District, with 8000 operatives, average 
more than 80,000,000 yards annually. New mills are con- 
stantly being established, one of the latest locating at 
Cordeiro, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, and small towns 
are rapidly being converted into the typical mill centers 
which transform rural districts into urban districts, 
[Utilize v/ater-power, add the smokestack to the architec- 
tural features of a landscape hitherto dominated by the 
church or cathedral, electrify even the poorest homes, and 
cause community life to revolve about the factory-whistle 
and the weekly pay-envelope. 



86 Manufacturing and Labor 

The rest of the cotton-producing area of Latin America 
is passing through an identical evolution in which cotton- 
growing leads to manufacturing, and manufacturing to 
a profound change in local habits in and about the factory 
precincts. 

Mexico follows Brazil in cotton-growing, with an annual 
crop of 100,000,000 pounds and some very considerable 
plantations, one of which, the Mexican Cotton Estates of 
Tlahualilo, Ltd., is capitalized at $1,250,000. Of the cot- 
ton factories, the one at Atlixco is capitalized at $6,000,- 
000, the Compania Industrial de Orizaba, at $15,000,000, 
and a number of others, at more than $1,000,000. For 
the half year ending January 31, 1921, official returns 
gave the number of spindles at 720,000. Between 30,000 
and 40,000 operatives are employed. 

The goods manufactured in Mexico, as in most of the 
other Latin American countries, are of the simpler kinds 
and do not usually compete with the highest grades 
obtainable from abroad : but this condition results mainly 
from the heavy demand for the less costly cloths, and 
will naturally change as the per capita wealth and the 
desire for more expensive fabrics increase. 

Peru, ranking next to Mexico in the production of 
cotton, is building up a large cotton-manufacturing in- 
dustry, and has begun to export the manufactured article 
to neighboring Latin American countries, Colombia, 
Venezuela, and Ecuador, all grow cotton and possess cot- 
ton factories, Colombia having by far the largest number 
of mills, which total about 30, and turning out, at Bogota, 
Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Medellin, a greater variety 
of spun, woven, and knit goods, including hosiery, than 
either of the other countries. Venezuela, nevertheless, 
has three large plants at Caracas, Valencia, and in the 
eastern part of the republic, and several smaller factories, 
which produce 80 per cent of the ordinary cloth con- 
sumed in the country and average 120,000 dozen under- 
wear annually. 

Central America, the West Indies, Uruguay, and Chile 
are practically negligible factors as producers of cotton, 



Manufacturing and Labor 87 

but are not without cotton-manufacturing plants and are, 
in fact, as in the case of Chile and Uruguay, seeking to 
extend their textile facilities by the importation of cotton 
and the attraction of foreign capital to the cotton 
industry. 

COTTON-MANUFACTURING IN ARGENTINA 

Though cotton production in Argentina is as yet in its 
initial stages and amounts to little more than 1,000,000 
pounds a year in spite of the large tracts in the north 
suitable for cotton-growing, half a dozen spinning and 
weaving factories and nearly fifty knitting mills consti- 
tute a branch of industry which may some day prove of 
national importance. Accessibility to the great cotton 
regions directly north should eventually inspire Argentina 
with the ambition to fulfil in South America the role of 
the British and American cotton-manufacturing centers, 
which have to obtain their supplies at a distance. 

Though it is true that Argentina is still primarily an 
agricultural country and will continue to be so for 
decades, its manufactures are growing more numerous 
and more highly diversified. Its position as the leading 
and most progressive Latin American republic and the 
character of its immigrants, who are to-day coming less 
from the agricultural quarters of Europe and in larger 
numbers from the manufacturing districts, are forcing it 
into industrial avenues even more rapidly than it may 
desire. 

*'BUY HOME-MADE PRODUCTS" 

Not only in Argentina, but in almost every other impor- 
tant Latin American country, the slogan, ''Buy home- 
made products," is becoming a national cry and a cri- 
terion of patriotism. Thus far, it has caused no great 
anxiety among the manufacturing nations supplying 
Latin America, and is even encouraged by foreign con- 
cerns established there. Whether the refrain is spon- 
taneous, and a natural resultant of a growing nationalistic 
spirit, or whether it is artificially and artfully stimulated 



88 Manufacturing and Labor 

by the business men and local chambers of commerce, 
matters little. It is the effect on foreign imports that 
counts: and that effect is becoming alarmingly manifest 
in several branches. 

It is not so long ago since traveling-bags, pocket- 
books, vanity-cases, card-cases, and manufactured harness 
material were imported from abroad into Argentina, offer- 
ing a lucrative business to European leather-workers. 
Many firms of respectable size catered especially to the 
Argentine market and maintained large establishments 
for the production of their wares. To-day, the foreign 
article is being inexorably elbowed out by the Argentine 
product, which in many cases is up to the European 
standard. The time may be foreseen when Argentine 
leather-goods, made by the factories in Buenos Aires — 
of which there are now about a dozen — and in other in- 
dustrial centers will fully supply the home-market and 
make a strong bid for the trade in other Latin American 
countries. 

Before the establishment of the paper factory at 
Maracay, Venezuela, practically all paper was imported: 
now, the Maracay factory furnishes a very considerable 
proportion of the paper used in the republic and has to 
that extent cut into the sales of the foreign product. 

ADVENT OF THE MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER IN BRAZIL 

By a curious anomaly, the manufacture of rubber 
articles, which should have had some standing in Brazil 
as soon as rubber became a marketable product, has until 
recently received almost no attention at all. But since 
1913 several factories have taken up the elaboration of 
the raw material and are doing a prosperous business in 
the manufacture of rubber tires and other rubber goods ; 
and the Goodyear Tire Company has terminated its pre- 
liminary negotiations with the Brazilian Government for 
the erection of a plant in which to supplement the out- 
put of its American establishments. Other American rub- 
ber manufacturers may be expected to follow suit. 

While it may seem, and probably is, presumptuous to 



Manufacturing and Labor 89 

institute a comparison between even the most advanced 
manufacturing countries of Latin America and our own 
country, the idea is not altogether preposterous. Coal 
and iron have undoubtedly proved the magic wand by 
means of which the United States has been transformed 
from a producer of raw materials — our early and signifi- 
cant economic role — into the world's greatest manufac- 
turer: and Latin America thus far, though rich in iron, 
appears deficient in coal. Yet a new epoch in the develop- 
ment of power has arisen, and it is possible that water- 
power may come to be the final arbiter of the manufac- 
turing destinies of nations. In that form of energy, Latin 
America is peculiarly rich: and the projects which it 
makes feasible may be instanced by the transmission of 
a current of 110,000 volts by the Chile Exploration Com- 
pany from Tocopila, on the coast of Chile, to its remark- 
able plant at Chuquicamata, a hundred miles away. 

Without coal of its own, Argentina now possesses 
approximately 50,000 industrial establishments which 
annually turn out goods to the value of about one and 
a third billion dollars, and require the services of more 
than a third of a million persons. In 1850, when we 
exhibited the first signs of becoming an industrial country, 
the value of our manufactured products was $1,019,106,- 
616 : and we were further along in the path of modern 
progress than Argentina is supposed to be to-day. The 
number of industrial plants in the Province of Buenos 
Aires alone was 12,687 at the end of 1919. 

Chile furnishes an excellent example of the even pace 
kept by the local exploitation of motive power and the 
growth of manufacturing, and shows to what extent some 
of the Latin American countries may "ease up" on their 
dependence on foreign fuel. 

Between 1909 and 1914, Chile imported an average of 
1,403,579 metric tons of coal, or more than half of its 
requirement of 2*500,000 tons for its industries. The war 
intervened, coal was high and hard to obtain, and rail- 
ways and manufacturing plants had to be supplied from 
sources near at hand. Having a coal area of 1780 kilo- 



90 Manufacturing and Labor 

meters, with coal reserves of more than two billion tons, 
the Grovernment ■undertook an extensive programme to 
increase the amount of coal production. With such success 
was the programme carried on that by 1918, in spite of 
increased demands for the fuel, the importation of coal 
had decreased to 386,478 metric tons, or about a quarter 
of the former figures. In the many factories using gas 
obtained from Australian coal, gas made from native 
coal was substituted: and to-day practically all the 
Chilean gas is secured from coal mined in the Chilean 
fields. 

In the meantime, manufacturing has not slackened, 
excepting as affected by conditions which are world wide. 
To-day, Chile is the most important manufacturing 
country on the West Coast, and, as has been indicated 
by a quotation from President Barros-Luco, aspires to 
a prominent status in the manufacturing world. In 1913 
the value of the production of its manufacturing indus- 
tries was $130,000,000, the number of its factories over 
6000, and that of its factory employees, about 80,000. 
With a considerable provision of coal, an admirable 
supply of hydraulic power, a seaboard about 3000 miles 
in length, and the will to manufacture, Chile has splendid 
prospects of industrial prosperity. 

FUTURE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 

If an industrial chart of Latin America were to be pre- 
pared, showing present tendencies, four distinct regions 
could be selected as great manufacturing centers of the 
near future. These are Chile, Argentina, the southern 
part of Brazil, and Mexico. 

Enough has been said of manufacturing in Chile and 
Argentina to convince those who picture them as only 
raw-material countries that the industrial nucleus is large 
and undergoing a process of expansion. Data as sur- 
prising may be adduced in behalf of Brazil and Mexico. 

The principal manufacturing districts of Brazil are com- 
prised within the State of Sao Paulo and the Federal 
District, in which Rio de Janeiro is located. 



Manufacturing and Labor 91 

The State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has always enjoyed the 
reputation of uncommon energy and commercial activity, 
and its fame is not belied in the province of the manufac- 
turing industries. To the general public, Sao Paulo 
symbolizes coffee — and only coffee. But a decided lack of 
initiative might be charged against the Paulistas — the 
Yankees of Brazil — if they were content to abide by the 
harvest of a single crop. In reality the Paulistas have 
kept their hands from few industries. Textiles, jute, lace, 
silk manufactures, beverages, clothing, matches, drugs, per- 
fumery, shoes, iron-ware, tobacco products, furniture, 
earthenware, glass, paper, matches, leather products, manu- 
factured hydrogen gas, chemicals are among the numerous 
articles manufactured in the State of Sao Paulo. During 
1918, the total value of the manufactures of Sao Paulo 
amounted to 556,801 contos, or, at the exchange rate at 
that time of nearly $260 to the conto, about $140,000,000 
in American currency. The leading articles were textiles 
and shoes. The Federal District, containing 1265 factories 
in 1919, and employing in the neighborhood of 50,000 
persons, produced goods not far below the value of $100,- 
000,000, and of a highly diversified character. 

These two states alone have, of recent years, fallen little 
short of the total value of manufactures in Brazil in 1910, 
when, as has been estimated, they represented the sum of 
about $240,000,000. 

VARIED MANUFACTURES OP BRA2iIL 

At the present moment, Brazil possesses, according to 
recent data, 36,745 industrial establishments, of which 
7613 are engaged in the manufacture of shoes, 1040 in 
the production of textiles, and 1291 in pharmaceutical 
supplies. 

Many of the manufacturing plants in Brazil, as else- 
where, are, of course, small, and their importance lies in 
their aggregate number and in their fulfillment of local 
needs. But large establishments are not wanting, and 
will stand comparison with the great public service cor- 
porations such as the Brazilian Traction, Light, and Power 



92 Manufacturing and Labor 

Co., capitalized at $120,000,000, which controls the Rio 
de Janeiro Tramway, Light, and Power Co., the Sao 
Paulo Tramway, Light, and Power Co., and the Sao Paulo 
Electric Co. ; the Ceara Tramway, Light, and Power Co., 
capitalized at $2,000,000; the Companhia Brazileira de 
Energia Electrica, capitalized at $10,000,000 ; the Manaos 
Tramways and Light Co., capitalized at $1,500,000; the 
Southern Brazil Electric Co., capitalized as $3,750,000. 

NEW MANUFACTURING PROJECTS IN BRAZIL 

Thus, the Parana plant of the Brazilian Railway Com- 
pany, in which vast quantities of construction planks are 
made, involved an initial cost of $25,000,000. The con- 
struction shops of the North-Western line constitute an 
extensive manufacturing plant, in which practically 
everything required by the railroad, from rolling stock 
to dining-cars, is turned out of Brazilian materials by 
Brazilian workmen. Recently, authorization has been 
given to the Minister of Agriculture to contract for the 
establishment in the State of Minas Geraes of a "steel 
mill for the electric smelting of iron and the manufacture 
of steel sheets. The same contract will include a factory 
for the manufacture of cement and the development of 
the waste materials left from the metals, and the con- 
struction of a railway for the transportation of the raw 
materials for the several industries. ' * This enterprise will, 
it is expected, be completed by December of the present 
year (1921). Another large undertaking, which is listed 
for this year, is the exploitation of the paper pulp in- 
dustry in the States of Parana and Santa Catharina for 
the benefit of an association of the principal newspapers 
of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Several factories have 
lately entered the business of manufacturing the simpler 
agricultural implements and are offering competition to 
foreign firms in plows, harrows, rice machinery, and 
rough cane mills. 



Manufacturing and Labor 



VARIED MANUFACTURES OF MEXICO 

Mexico's chances of becoming a significant manufac- 
turing country, though little thought of by the general 
public, are fully as good as Chile's and in many respects, 
better. 

It possesses the raw materials for almost every plass 
of industry, has tw^o long coastlines of 1772 and 4594 
miles, respectively — the advantages of w^hich it is plan- 
ning to utilize by a national merchant marine to be built 
from the proceeds of the centennial tax collected in 
September, 1921 — has an excellent start in railway trans- 
portation, contains large coal resources,"and can get any 
supplementary quantities which it may temporarily need 
almost on its borders from the United States, is super- 
latively wealthy in petroleum, has water-power, and, in 
short, appears in every detail to be almost as well endowed 
industrially as the United States. Its manufacturing 
progress needs only political stability and more foreign 
immigration to become rapid. 

Mining and oil working have, of course, occupied the 
center of the stage in Mexico. Its manufactures, includ- 
ing textiles, woolen goods, chemicals, steel and iron 
products, paper, henequen — from which binder-twine is 
made — flour, soap, and dynamite and explosives, in addi- 
tion to cotton fabrics, which have been discussed, are, 
nevertheless, of impressive magnitude. 

Half a dozen fiber plants, capitalized at from $500,000 
to $4,000,000, produce rope, thread, carpets, and rugs in 
large quantities. Woolen mills are to be found in dif- 
ferent parts of the republic, that at Tlalnepantla, famous 
for its blankets, being capitalized at $1,500,000. The 
Comision Reguladora de Henequen of Yucatan has prac- 
tically controlled the henequen output of about $40,000,- 
000 annually. La Abeja Company, capitalized at $500,000, 
is but one of a large number of factories devoted to the 
manufacture of Mexican sombreros and ''Panama" hats. 
Several soap factories, capitalized at varying amounts up 
to the $5,000,000 invested by the Laguna Soap Company, 



94 Manufacturing and Labor 

manufacture millions of pounds of soap and thousands of 
tons of cottonseed oil and glycerine daily. Iron and steel 
manufactures have taken on huge proportions, the Mon- 
terrey Iron and Steel Company, which represents a capi- 
talization of $10,000,000, turning out three hundred tons 
of steel each day, and furnishing enormous amounts of 
structural iron and steel rails. The San Eafael and 
Anexas Company, capitalized at $7,000,000, operates 
several factories and a pulp mill near Mexico City. Flour 
mills in Chihuahua, Saltillo, Aguascalientes, Mexico City, 
and at other points throughout the country, elaborate 
the $20,000,000 of wheat raised annually and the great 
quantities of other cereals. The Mexican Crude Rubber 
Company, capitalized at $1,500,000, has factories in 
several Mexican cities. 

Public utility plants, on which much of the manufac- 
turing is dependent, are located in large number all over 
the country and have capitalizations running from less 
than $1,000,000 to $25,000,000. 

FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING IN LATIN AMERICA 

Even if the population of these growing industrial 
nations should increase at a rate less than normal and 
only double during the next fifty years — ^instead of 
tripling, as has been true in the United States in the past 
fifty years — the development of manufacturing for home 
consumption, for export to neighboring countries, and for 
such distant trade as may arise, must necessarily result 
in a production which would seem extraordinary to-day. 
Argentina would then have eighteen million inhabitants, 
Chile eight million, Brazil sixty million, and Mexico thirty- 
two million. 

The history of all countries with manufacturing facili- 
ties shows that those articles of common use which can 
be made locally at a reasonable cost are gradually stricken 
from the list of foreign imports and permanently placed 
among the national manufactures, receiving whenever 
jiecessary ample governmental protection ; and there is no 



Manufacturing and Labor 95 

reason to believe that the history of Latin America on 
this point will be different. 

Any far-sighted policy which looks fifty years ahead 
will keep this historical tendency in mind in its dealings 
with Latin America. What Latin America imports now 
in vast quantities may not form the bulk of its imports 
within another generation or two. Already several foreign 
articles are losing ground. The leather-goods trade has 
been cited : and mention may be made of the effect of the 
expanding metallurgical industry in Argentina and of 
railroad-car construction in Chile on their respective 
branches of importation. 

A much more intensive cultivation of the people and 
of the market, greater specialization, and the establish- 
ment of more American industries and commercial houses 
on Latin American soil will fairly soon have to become 
an integral part of our business relations with Latin 
America. Great Britain, with its industrial corporations 
located in Latin America and its commercial establish- 
ments like the Argentine branch of Harrods, is anticipat- 
ing coming events. 

CHANGING CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Perhaps the surest evidence of the industrial evolution 
in Latin America is afforded by the changing situation of 
labor and the efforts made to arrive at a practicable modus 
Vivendi between capital and labor. Recent labor problems, 
generally concerned with the industrial classes and rarely 
with the agricultural workers, have given much concern 
to Latin American governments and to welfare asso- 
ciations. 

The Indian population of Latin America, which is pre- 
ponderant in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico and 
principally occupied in mining and agriculture, is only 
infrequently and incidentally involved in labor difficulties. 
The docile character and phlegmatic temperament of the 
Indian, his contentment with a primitive mode of exist- 
ence, his lack of self-assertion, and his small power of 
building up social or economic organizations are not likely 



96 Manufacturing and Labor 

to lead him into radical industrial movements unless 
stirred up by foreign agitation. 

The prime movers of social unrest are the European 
immigrants who come to the large cities and congregate 
in the industrial districts. Bringing with them the latest 
ideas of the relations between employer and employee, 
counting on the sympathies of their numerous country- 
men in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil, strongly 
imbued with the democratic and socialistic theories which 
have been passing over Europe in periodic waves, and 
guided by professional labor leaders who understand how 
to use the public press and the spoken word, they have 
within a short period popularized the modern proletarian 
attitude in the southern part of South America and will 
inevitably influence agricultural and mining sentiment in 
the course of time. 

Their teachings will undoubtedly be taken to heart most 
seriously in those regions where the landed bureaucracy 
has been strongly intrenched since the founding of the 
Spanish colonies and where anything like a parceling 
out of the vast estates would savor of the wildest heresy. 
Reasoning from current history, it is impossible to see how 
the great landed proprietors can ultimately avoid con- 
flicts similar to those which ended in Francisco Madero's 
election to the presidency of Mexico. 

The center of labor unrest is at present the Argentine 
Republic. From the beginning of the twentieth century, 
the social and political life of the country has undergone 
a distinct alteration due to industrial elements, culminat- 
ing in the election of President Hipolito Irigoyen in 1916 
by the more "progressive" or socialistically inclined 
groups. Strikes have become increasingly frequent, the 
government has been forced to adopt repressive measures, 
at times declaring a state of martial law, and "unde- 
sirables" in large numbers have been deported because 
of acts of extreme violence. 

In 1906, in addition to a considerable number of strikes 
of minor duration, 23 general strikes took place, in which 
18,317 workingmen participated; in 1910, 214 strikes, in 



Manufacturing and Labor 97 

which 17,000 were involved and the business of the capital 
was paralyzed for a period, occurred in Buenos Aires; 
by the first half of 1919, the number of strikes in the 
republic had mounted to 259, affecting 262,319 working- 
men. 

Though originating primarily in the desire of the labor 
organizations to raise the standard of wages, to shorten 
the hours of work, and to better the economic and social 
condition of the laboring classes in general, the labor dis- 
satisfaction has had political and industrial repercussions 
which have been far-reaching, often disastrous, and, both 
in Argentina and elsewhere, sometimes beneficial. In 
January, 1921, according to a report received by the 
United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 

Labor conditions continue unfavorable [in Argentina]. Tho 
strike at the oil refineries has not been settled and there is in 
the Republic a great scarcity of gasoline, which is seriously inter- 
fering with harvesting operations. There is also a sympathetic 
strike of chauffeurs in Buenos Aires. There are frequent signs 
of unrest among the rural laborers but the trouble is not as 
serious as last year. The rural society has petitioned Congress 
to pass strike legislation. After a whole year the strike of the 
Mihanovich fleet is still a deadlock. 

The month of May of the same year saw conflicts be- 
tween the authorities and the longshoremen of Buenos 
Aires which resulted in several deaths. The incident of 
the ''Martha Washington," belonging to the United 
States Shipping Board, gave rise to grave questions in 
which the editorial opinion of Buenos Aires foresaw the 
possibility of claims for damages by the United States 
Government and by reason of which the arrogant stand 
of the Maritime Labor Federation, in presuming to inter- 
fere in a dispute between the crew and the officers of a 
United States vessel, and the laxity of the Argentine Gov- 
ernment were roundly scored. American and British pack- 
ing interests have suffered from labor domination to such 
an extent that some of the companies have threatened 
to close their establishments, and one British concern has 
already done so. 



98 Manufacturing and Labor 

The government of Paraguay has recently had to com- 
mission its Minister of War to try to compose the dif- 
ferences which have arisen between the ship-owners and 
the port-workers' union, and Mexico has found it neces- 
sary to expel foreigners who have been fomenting trouble 
among the industrial classes. Labor difficulties have not 
been restricted to dock-workers, but have been prevalent 
in all the industries from cotton-milling to street-cleaning. 

Any American reading of such happenings in Latin 
America for the first time will in all probability ascribe 
them to the Latin American temperament and find in them 
another argument for persisting in his conviction that 
our southern neighbors are incurably unruly and in- 
capable of orderly progress. The truth is, however, that 
Latin America thus far has had a remarkably peaceful 
industrial development compared with other divisions of 
the globe. 

The record for the United States alone in 1919 was 
3253 strikes and 121 lockouts: and between January and 
June, 1920, American workingmen to the number of nearly 
a million were affected by strikes, with a loss of over 
eleven million working-days. 

What American labor has set out to accomplish, and 
does accomplish in large measure, though at the cost of 
tremendous sacrifices on the part of everybody concerned, 
including the innocent public, Latin American labor 
organizations also try to accomplish. Defeated in their 
demands in the majority of cases, as occurs in the United 
States, too, and in other countries, the Latin American 
strikers have, nevertheless, won significant victories, and 
caused the framing of modern industrial laws and the 
introduction of protective economic and social measures 
more effectively, perhaps, than strikers the world over 
have succeeded in doing. 

LABOR LEGISLATION 

M. Clemeneeau, in his South America of To-day, pub- 
lished in 1911, states explicitly in several passages that 
"laws for the protection of labour are unknown in the 



Manufacturing and Labor 99 

Argentine" and Brazil, commends the mill-owners for 
their humane treatment of their employees, predicts that 
the labor question will soon force itself to the attention 
of legislators, and declares of Brazil that "a number of 
colonists in lands where the administration has shown it- 
self slow to take action have protested so loudly against 
the grave abuses that result that some Latin countries 
have beeii obliged to forbid emigration to Brazil.'* 

From certain bills presented to the Argentine Congress 
about the middle of 1910, we may infer that the legal 
action in behalf of labor was just beginning to make 
headway at the time of M. Cl^menceau's trip to South 
America: for in 1910 a bill before the Argentine Congress 
asked for the establishment of a Department of Labor 
to study labor problems, draw up and enforce regulations, 
and to offer its services as arbitrator in disputes. In the 
same year, the questions of workingmen's compensation 
and compulsory arbitration came up before that body. 
Since then, labor legislation has been one of the most 
engrossing topics in the halls of Latin American law- 
makers and among societies for social betterment. 

In all the larger countries, the demand for an eight- 
hour day, for compensation in case of accident, and for 
the right to strike has figured prominently in labor pro- 
grammes. 

The labor laws of Mexico are especially detailed with 
regard to a minimum living wage, adjustment of dif- 
ferences, the composition of the Committee on Concilia- 
tion and Arbitration, and the relations between employers 
and striking employees, and in reality embody 'the best 
principles evolved in the most progressive countries of 
Europe and North America. As everywhere, their success 
depends chiefly on the effectiveness with which they are 
enforced. 

Uruguay, which is sometimes spoken of as the socio- 
logical laboratory of South America and is the most 
advanced republic in constructive legislation, "has decreed 
that no laboring man shall work more than six days in 
the week, nor more than eight hours in a single day. 



100 Manufacturing and Labor 

The President of Cuba has lately established the hours 
of work and wages for dockmen at Santiago, specifying 
that the working day shall run from seven to eleven 
o'clock in the morning and from one to five o'clock in 
the afternoon, that from $4 to $4.50 per day shall be paid 
port labor, and that overtime shall be paid double. 

The Buenos Aires City Council has conditioned its per- 
mission to two of the principal tramway companies to 
raise rates on their maintenance of an eight-hour day for 
their workmen, extra pay for all overtime, a general in- 
crease of ten per cent on wages below $108 per month, 
a minimum wage, and the foundation of a pension fund, 
to which the tramway companies must contribute eight 
per cent of the wages and salaries earned by employees. 
The interests involved may be gathered from the fact 
that in 1919 the gross receipts of the two companies from 
their lines operated in Buenos Aires were about $40,- 
000,000 in United States currency. A further interesting 
provision stipulates that not more than eight per cent 
profit on their capital may be retained by the companies. 

PROTECTION OP CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRIES 

Especial solicitude is shown in all Latin American labor 
legislation for children engaged in gainful occupations. 
Perhaps the steps taken to protect children against in- 
dustrial exploitation is one of the most cheering signs 
of the more modern Latin America. 

Naturally prone to that tenderness toward children 
which characterizes all the Latin races, the Latin Amer- 
icans have needed only a slight amount of outside sug- 
gestion, aided by the labors of some noble women, like 
Doiia Elvira Garcia y Garcia, principal of the Colegio Na- 
cional de Educandas of Cuzco, Peru, Dona Juana Alarco de 
Dammert, of Lima, Peru, and numerous others, to trans- 
mute into law their affection for children in general and 
their infinite pity for the helpless little folk who have 
been drawn into the hazards and hardships of industrial 
life. 

Since the meeting of the First Pan American Child 



Manufacturing and Labor 101 

Welfare Congress, held in Buenos Aires in 1916, the efforts 
to protect working children have become well organized, 
and remedial measures are reported at frequent intervals 
in nearly every republic. 

The Peruvian Government, after a careful inspection 
of the hygienic conditions of the cotton mills of Lima, 
has ordered that no minors shall hereafter be employed 
whose health has not been certificated by the proper 
authorities; that the work of minors now employed, but 
not coming within the law, shall cease ; and that extensive 
improvements must be made in the factories in the way 
of safety and sanitation so that the welfare of minora 
and women may be thoroughly safeguarded. The child 
labor laws of Chile place heavy penalties on the employ- 
ment of young children at any kind of night work or in 
any position in which their physical or moral welfare 
might be harmfully affected. In Argentina the National 
Health Department is conducting a searching survey of 
the material surroundings of minors working in industrial 
establishments and of the subsequent physical develop- 
ment of children who have been granted permission to 
work, and is enforcing rigorous medical examination. 
Children, in Mexico, may not, if under twelve years of 
age, be employed in any contract work; nor, if under 
sixteen, may they engage in any night work which might 
be classed as dangerous or unwholesome; nor may chil- 
dren between the ages of twelve and sixteen be employed 
in any work for more than six hours per day. 

The working conditions of women are undergoing 
similar changes, and in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, 
and Mexico are slowly approximating the status which 
obtains in the advanced industrial districts of the United 
States and Europe. In some of these countries, the in- 
stallation of day nurseries, the provision of ample light 
and seating, the protection of women in delicate health, 
and the use of special devices to prevent deleterious sub- 
stances, such as lint and dust in the cotton-mills, from 
entering the respiratory organs or the eyes, have been 
made compulsory. Whatever the situation of women ma;^ 



102 Manufacturing and Labor 

be in the agricultural regions or in the remote sections 
of Latin America still closed to communication with the 
outside world and persisting in primitive habits and cus- 
toms, the fact is undeniable that the industries, instead 
of lowering the living conditions of women workers, are 
actually raising them. 

The influence, indeed, of the modern factories in light- 
ing, sanitation, orderliness, and of their adjuncts, such 
as the nurseries, recreation grounds, schools, and dis- 
pensaries, on the homes and environment of the poorer 
classes is certain with time to resemble that exerted by 
our public schools on the homes of our poorer immigrants. 

Such a remarkable institution, for example, as the wel- 
fare activities of the Guggenheim mining works at 
Chuquicamata, Chile, must perforce mean a new concep- 
tion of mining to the laborers and a new sense of 
responsibility to the mine owners. Since the majority 
of the great industrial enterprises are under the control 
of foreigners, it is altogether likely that they will main- 
tain quite modern establishments and that they will, by 
their mere presence and number, compel all other fac- 
tories to adopt their standards. 

In addition, it must be borne in mind that Latin Amer- 
ican working people, once they have discovered what they 
think their rights, or have enjoyed new privileges granted 
by their employers, can be much more forceful in insist- 
ing on them than our own workers. Once organized, as 
they now are in some occupations, they may, as in Argen- 
tina, unseat administrations and install their own, perhaps 
substituting thereby, in some republics, labor uprisings for 
political revolutions. That organized labor has, in an 
extremely short space, made startling progress in Latin 
American politics is evidenced by the short-lived "revolu- 
tion" of 1905 in Argentina, which, as Professor Shepherd 
explains, "was not primarily the work of politicians but 
of strikers organized into a workingmen's federation." 

Latin American workingmen, besides doing for them- 
selves, organizing into unions, publishing their own period- 
icals, such as "El Trahajo" (Labor) by the Federation of 



Manufacturing and Labor 103 

Labor of Salvador, and taking an active part in the solu- 
tion of problems affecting themselves, their employers, and 
the State, have been generously assisted by the private 
corporations employing them and by the national and local 
governments. The peonage system, while undoubtedly 
existing in many localities in the same sense in which it 
still survives in some American mill-towns, is by and large 
a thing of the past, and in some republics — the most notable 
recent example being Ecuador — has received its death-blow 
through formal legislative action decreeing its total aboli- 
tion and canceling the debts owed by any persons in a 
state of peonage to their masters. 

Rare, indeed, are the large industrial companies which 
do not comprehend that it is to their advantage as well 
as to that of their employees to introduce, as fast as they 
have be«i worked out in Europe and the United States, 
all those methods of amelioration and cooperation which 
distinguish the modern from the feudal age. Schools, 
dispensaries, hospitals, recreation grounds, restaurants for 
supplying food at cost are fast becoming a necessary 
adjunct to the great industrial establishments of Latin 
America. Housing, in particular, is occupying the atten- 
tion of mill-owners and mine-operators, many of whom 
are building suitable, cheap dwellings for their working- 
men and either renting them out at a low price or per- 
mitting their employees to purchase them on the install- 
ment plan. One of the important cotton-factories near 
Pernambuco, Brazil, furnishes cottages practically free, 
charging only for ground rent, at the rate of two or four 
milreis (normal value $.54) a month. 

HOUSING FOR WORKINGMEN 

The most significant housing projects, however, are be- 
ing sponsored by the progressive municipal and national 
governments of Latin America, partly with a view to 
removing the shacks which deface many of the beautiful 
cities, partly to improve the sanitary surroundings of the 
poorer classes, and partly to encourage thrift. 

The city of Montevideo has long felt the need of better 



104 Manufacturing and Labor 

housing accommodations for workmen and is on the eve 
of a comprehensive building programme of an industrial 
character in which special attention will be paid to modern 
homes for its laboring population. The executive authori- 
ties of Peru have this year approved the petition of the 
Provincial Council of Callao to be allowed to contract a 
loan of 45,000 Peruvian pounds (normal value $4.86) for 
the construction of workingmen's houses, which will be 
sold at cost, payable in monthly installments during a 
period of fifteen years. In Lima, a commission has been 
appointed to acquire public lands from the government 
and private lands from individual owners for the purpose 
of erecting cheap, sanitary houses, to be built of the most 
solid, modern material, provided with the best hygienic 
service, including bath, supplied with screens, and to be 
sold on the easiest possible terms to workingmen. The 
plans of an Italian engineer are being utilized by the 
Compaiiia de Urbanizaeion de Bogota for the construction 
of houses in an extensive workmen 's addition to the capi- 
tal of Colombia. In Medellin, Colombia, real estate is sold 
on the installment plan to laborers, servants, and other 
members of the thrifty working classes of that district — 
who are principally of Spanish Jewish descent, and show 
a most praiseworthy ambition to own their own property. 
One of the Chilean laws of 1906 provides for the con- 
stitution of councils in every province and department 
to formulate plans for inexpensive, but good, houses for 
workingmen, and specifies the sanitary arrangements 
which must be followed. These houses are sold to work- 
ingmen and minor employees of the State on the install- 
ment plan, and the President was authorized to make 
available $800,000 for the carrying out of the project. 

COMPARISON WITH THE UNITED STATES IN THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF INDUSTRIES 

For the benefit of those who are skeptical regarding 
the industrial and manufacturing development of Latin 
America, a striking parallel might be instituted with the 
Uniteci States. 



Manufacturing and Labor 105 

By 1850 — less than seventy-five years ago — ^^the rail- 
roads west of the Alleghany Mountains had hardly as 
yet come into being. As Professor Clive Day remarks in 
his History of Commerce, "Not a mile of railroad had been 
built in Iowa and Minnesota, and there was no railroad 
connection with the East in all the country west of the 
Mississippi and north of the State of Missouri." 

One great crop, cotton — like cattle or cereals in the 
southern portion of South America, or coffee in Brazil — 
overshadowed all other exports, amounting to $191,000,- 
000 in 1860 as contrasted with $37,000,000 in the exports 
of manufactures. Apparently we were not a great manu- 
facturing nation as late as only sixty years ago. Manu- 
factured articles constituted the majority of our imports, 
and raw materials for our own manufactures were brought 
in from abroad only in small quantities. 

A population [to cite Professor Day again] growing rapidly 
both in numbers and in welfare caused a demand for manu- 
factures which stimulated some producers to choose manufac- 
turing instead of farming for their livelihood, and the government 
aided these individuals by taxing imported wares, and so giving 
the domestic producer an advantage in the home market. 

The tendency toward high tariffs grew, and tariff legis- 
lation sought to combine the two aims of raising revenue 
and encouraging home industries. 

It is this era in the history of our commerce which the 
latter portion of the nineteenth century in Latin America 
most resembles. Transportation and manufactures are in 
their Infancy — though a much lustier infancy than the 
general public believes possible — and the notion of import 
duties for the sake of revenue is beginning to give way 
to the settled plan of taxing foreign products to a point 
at which they cannot enter on more than equal terms with 
local manufactures. As the manufacturing industries 
broaden out in Latin America, the use of a high tariff 
is likely to be carried further than in the United States, 
since the combination of those who desire it ^'or revenue 
or protection, or both, is stronger than in our country, 
the cost of living in the centers of population is higher 



106 Manufacturing and Labor 

and everybody expects to pay well for products ordinarily 
imported, and the size of the intelligent public opinion 
capable of understanding legislation and liable to react 
powerfully against the mandates of congresses and the 
maneuvers of the moneyed interests is at present, in most 
of the Latin American republics, limited. 

Latin America, if facts and signs do not both lie, now 
stands on the threshold of an epoch corresponding to the 
second half of the nineteenth century in our history — 
an epoch of increasing immigration, increasing exploita- 
tion of natural resources, growth of manufactures, very 
slow, but certain, decrease in the importation of manu- 
factured articles, and expansion of transportation by land 
and by sea. 

The absolute amount of imports will for a long time, 
until Latin American territory is much more densely set- 
tled, undoubtedly increase greatly, but the establish- 
ment of each additional manufacturing plant ultimately 
means a diminution of imports, of manufactured products, 
both absolutely and relatively. 

On the social side of industrial development, many 
republics of Latin America, such as Argentina, Chile, 
and Uruguay, are now nearly abreast of the other coun- 
tries of the Western World. The struggles of capital and 
labor, of capital and the consumer, of labor and the con- 
sumer, the attractive force of the "tentacular" cities, the 
prevalence of radical economic thought, and the theory 
of the responsibility of capital to society are vital prob- 
lems in Latin America to-day and have not waited for 
the "peak" of industrial development. Like Japan, 
several Latin American countries have suddenly been pre- 
cipitated into the technological era out of a lingering 
medievalism. 



CHAPTER V 
PARAMOUNT FOREIGN INTERESTS 

Without overexertion, without government subsidies, 
without American colonies in the Latin American coun- 
tries, without a credit system palatable to Latin Ameri- 
cans, without a thorough comprehension of Latin Ameri- 
can needs, habits, requirements in packing, or custom- 
house technicalities — according to American writer after 
American writer who has berated the apparent ignorance 
of our businessmen in details vital to Latin American 
trade — and in the face of deterrent exchange values, our 
manufacturers and merchants nevertheless did business 
with Latin America in 1920 to the amount of $3,256,- 
295,601. 

These figures do not assume their merited proportions 
until a brief calculation is made. Our total trade with 
the whole world in 1920 was $13,508,157,959. Hence, 
Latin America furnished one-fourth of our entire export 
and import business. Our commerce with Latin America 
was more than twice as large as our commerce with 
Canada, and larger than our trade with all the rest of 
the world exclusive of Europe. Asia and Oceania wJth 
their hundreds of millions of people bought less from us 
and sold less to us than Latin America, with its population 
of about eighty millions. The population of the world is 
something under two billions, and the world therefore 
has at least 25 times as many inhabitants as Latin America. 
If we had done as much business with the whole world 
as we did with Latin America in 1920, our foreign com- 
merce would have reached the stupendous total of $75,- 
000,000,000. Evidently Latin America is not c. customer 
to be despised ! 

Further analysis reveals some highly instructive facts. 

107 , 



108 



Paramount Foreign Interests 



Our imports increased between 1919 and 1920 in every 
single country of Latin America with the exception of 
Brazil, in which a drop from $233,570,620 to $227,587,594', 
or about six million dollars, is to be noted. Our exports 
in 1920 exceeded the figures for 1919 in every single coun- 
try except Bolivia, in which a drop from $4,771,177 to' 
$4,573,381, or less than $200,000, took place. The in- 
creases by divisions may be seen at a glance in the follow- 
ing tables: 





Imports from 


Exports 




1919 


1920 


1919 


1920 


South America . . . 

West Indies 

Mexico 

Central America. . 


$686,221,358 

440,505,712 

148,926,376 

43,149,859 


$755,579,749 

764,547,538 

180,191,075 

66,675,497 


$433,820,545 

313,459,826 

131,455,101 

55,652,518 


$613,460,082 

581,511,679 

207,854,197 

86,475,784 


Total 


$1,318,803,305 


$1,766,993,859 


$934,387,990 


$1,489,301,742 



Grand total of imports and exports: 

1920 $3,256,295,601 

1919 2,253,191,295 

Increase in one year $1,003,104,306 

By what agencies have we increased our exports to 
Argentina from 45 million dollars for the year ending 
June 30, 1914 — prior to the war — to nearly 214 million 
in 1920: our exports to Brazil, from 30 million dollars 
in 1914 to nearly 157 million in 1920 : our exports to Cuba, 
from about 69 million dollars in 1914 to 515 million in 
1920? Manifestly, the rise in commodity prices cannot 
account for the almost incredible difference. Has it been 
due to Germany's crippled condition? Has the trade 
flowed toward us because England, Prance, and Italy 
have been hors de combat f 

That may all be, though none of the Allies ever retired 
one moment from the Latin American trade, and Eng- 
land 's competition has always been strong. Furthermore, 
the year 1920 is several years removed from the end of 
the war, and Europe has had two years in which to 
recuperate to some extent. Whatever the causes, the 
evidence is plain that we acquired markets more valuable 



Paramount Foreign Interests 109 

than China and the entire Orient and that the question 
of holding or giving up these markets now rests with us. 

Lest doubt may be felt as to our ability to hold our 
own or to make additional gains, the following data for 
1921 — the latest obtainable at the time of this writing — 
and corresponding figures for 1920 are given below. 

U. S. Exports to the Four Principal Latin American Markets for 
Eleven Months Ended May, 

1920 1921 Increase, 1921 

Argentina $153,559,950 $193,502,710 $ 39,942,760 

Brazil 105,337,298 125,047,837 19,710,539 

Cuba 352,301,480 390,983,306 38,681,826 

Mexico 133,234,296 246,110,448 112,876,152 

In view of the tremendous drop in our foreign exports 
in general, our position in Latin America may be con- 
sidered remarkably strong. 

To understand what the success of our businessmen in 
Latin American commerce means and to realize what must 
be done in order to hold the ground already gained, a 
study of the methods pursued by our foremost competitors 
is indispensable. Paramount commercial interests and a 
preponderating political and social influence appear to 
go so closely hand in hand in Latin America that it is 
often difficult to tell which is cause and which effect : and 
we have much to learn in this respect from European 
activities in Latin America, and particularly from those 
of Great Britain and Germany. 

NATIONAL MOBILIZATION FOR LATIN AMERICAN TRADE 

In the new Latin America — as, perhaps, everywhere in 
the world to-day — methods of business approach to na- 
tions have changed in a marked manner. The individual 
trader is subordinated to collective action in the game of 
modern scientific commercial exploitation, and nations 
mobilize for business. There is much point to Dr. W. E. 
Aughinbaugh's comment on the aftermath of the Franco- 
Prussian War: 

No military campaign was ever planned with such exactness 
of detail and precision as that which characterized the prelim- 



110 Paramount Foreign Interests 

inary movements of the exporting nations of Europe to acquire 
control of Latin American markets. When the Franco-Prussian 
war was over and the Pov/ers of the Old World had settled down 
to a development of their resources, it soon became apparent that 
foreign fields must be sought in which to dispose of the excess 
products of their industry. With that object in view governments, 
trade associations, manufacturers, shippers, exporters, civic and 
social societies, colleges, merchants, and individuals united in 
one harmonious movement to accomplish this purpose. 

The situation is identical to-day, with the United States, 
Japan, and even China and Czecho-Slovakia as added 
participants. What the Spanish captains secured by bald 
strokes, modern industrial organization is trying to obtain 
by the pressure of collective action. A common form of 
such pressure is seen in the flattering visit to Latin 
America of the particular nation, so to speak, in the per- 
son of its prime minister or its secretary of state, who, 
by well-chosen words on the public platform or in news- 
paper interviews, knits his own expatriate countrymen 
together in a feeling of enthusiasm for their fatherland, 
and incidentally — and primarily, be it said — ''drums up" 
trade for his country. So important has this role of the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Secretary of State 
become of late that the query naturally arises as to 
whether the time thus spent may not be worth fully as 
much as a great deal of the regular routine of office of 
these high functionaries. 

M. Clemenceau tours some of the South American re- 
publics, creates a wave of interest in France, and accom- 
plishes his ulterior purpose, in so far as the French are 
concerned. Signor Orlando, the former Minister of 
Foreign Affairs of Italy, is received with enthusiasm in 
the Argentine, where his countrymen number about 2,000,- 
000, or nearly one-fourth of the total population, and 
returns home, satisfied that Italian commerce has been 
stimulated by his visit. The Spanish Infanta honors Latin 
America with her presence, and King Alfonso promises 
to follow in the near future : and an impetus has been 
given to Spanish wines, olive-oil, cork, fruits, spices, and 
manufactures. Secretary of State Colby visits South 



Par amount Foreign Interests 111 

'America, convinces himcelf that we have remained too 
long in the dark about the world to the south of us, 
leaves a message of good- will from the United States to 
our neighbors, and undoubtedly, without mentioning it, 
to be sure, reminds the South American public that we 
manufacture and sell many articles of superior merit. 

But the temporary benefits gained by the visits of dis- 
tinguished officials is, after all, not the only nor the most 
lasting benefit. Through them, we are really coming to 
believe that we have been guilty of colossal misconceptions 
and that we are not the sole arbiters of the destinies of 
the Western Hemisphere, for each returned Secretary of 
State, senator, or other dignitary brings back the same 
tale of extraordinary natural wealth, social progress, and 
unlimited prospects. 

CAPTURING LATIN AMERICAN TRADE IN THE PAST 

How different the present solicitude for Latin American 
good-will is from the cavalier attitude of the past, and 
how great a tribute to Latin American evolution, may be 
judged from the methods formerly pursued toward the 
Latin American countries. 

Until well into the eighteenth country, Spain, as has 
been mentioned, enjoyed in Latin America one of the mosf 
rigid monopolies the world has ever known. Trade was 
prohibited not only between the colonies and other Euro- 
pean nations, but even among the colonies themselves. 
To prevent, for example, interchange of goods between 
Argentina and Peru, a custom-house was established at 
Cordoba, and a duty of fifty per cent levied on everything 
in transit in either direction. Such a system could not 
endure. Smuggling became a fairly honorable practice, 
and English and Dutch freebooters reaped the benefits. 

Portugal modeled its commercial policy on that of 
Spain, and kept for itself the profits of Brazilian trade by 
the expedient of chartering various Brazilian trading com- 
panies. During the first half of the seventeenth century, 
Holland occupied the northern provinces of Brazil and 
hoped to found a vast empire with unlimited commercial 



11^ Paramount Foreign Interests 

possibilities, but was evicted by the formidable Joao 
Fernandes Vieyra in 1654. In 1710 and 1711 France 
attacked Eio de Janeiro under Admirals Duclerc and 
Duguay Trouin^ but after an initial defeat and a succeed- 
ing victory, renounced her project of invading Brazil. 

Great Britain had kept a watchful eye on Latin America 
since the days of Sir Walter Raleigh, Drake, Hawkins, 
and Morgan, and stormed Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1808 : 
but her troops under General Beresford and General 
Whitelock were forced to capitulate by the citizenry. 

Other desultory attacks were made on the Latin Amer- 
ican colonies, without, however, shaking Spanish and 
Portuguese control. But by the first quarter of the nine- 
teenth century, Spanish America through its own efforts 
finally succeeded in throwing off its Spanish political 
and economic shackles, and Brazil became the head of its 
own mother-country. The Monroe Doctrine, enunciated 
in 1823, put an end to the Latin American aspirations of 
the European governments : and trade could proceed only 
along the lines of peace. 

Great Britain, France, and the United States became 
the foremost competitors in the Latin American market, 
Great Britain maintaining her ascendancy undisputed 
until the advent of Germany, about a generation ago. 
Spain, through racial sympathy, and France, through her 
ideals, literature, and art, have in the meantime exerted 
a pervasive commercial influence on all Latin America, 
but never of the first magnitude. The European War 
clipped the wings of Germany and added pinions to the 
Latin American commerce of the United States. 

Such, in brief, have been the significant moments in 
the development of foreign trade with Latin America. 
Among the outstanding facts are these: (1) that the 
European policy for capturing Latin American trade has 
passed successively through the stages of armed attack'; 
unorganized individual trafficking, and concerted action; 
and (2) that the three leading nations in Latin American 
trade, namely, Great Britain, Germany, and the United' 
States, have been of different stock, different traditions, 



Paramount Foreign Interests 113 

and different ideals from the peoples with whom they have 
dealt. The latter point is especially significant because 
it is a cogent answer to the assertion that Latin America, 
even in commerce, is moved primarily by feelings of con- 
sanguinity. The differences noted by such writers as Mr. 
C. W. Domville-Fife have never kept nations apart, par- 
ticularly in economic matters, when the logic of events 
or necessity has demanded that they stand together. 

Many of the steps taken by foreign countries, and 
especially Great Britain and Germany, in strengthening 
their business relations with Latin America, have a direct' 
application to our future economic and political stand- 
ing in Latin America. 

The extreme solicitude of Great Britain for its Latin 
American markets is natural. In this portion of the globe, 
Latin America is her best customer. Great Britain ex- 
ported in 1920 goods to the value of over 115,000,000 
pounds sterling to South America, the West Indies, and 
Central America — which far exceeds her exports amount- 
ing to 43,792,136 pounds to Canada and even the 77,131,- 
266 pounds' worth of merchandise shipped to the United 
States. This business is the result of sedulous and care- 
ful nursing. True, the British merchant has, like his 
American compeer, been scolded in the newspapers, trade- 
journals and books for his sluggishness and lack of 
adaptability: and His Britannic Majesty's Minister at 
Montevideo, Mr. R. T. Kennedy, voiced, just before the 
war, the sentiments of a large section of his countrymen 
in words that appear to have been taken bodily from some 
of our own writings of the past two or three years. 

At the risk of repeating well-known advice [he declared] I am 
bound to warn British traders that they must "wake up" and 
become less conservative in their attitude, and more adaptable in 
their procedure. They must watch the market, study the people, 
learn their wants, acquire a knowledge of the language, and 
when they have done all this, they must endeavor, like German 
merchants, with ready eagerness to meet and satisfy those wants 
and requirements. 

Nevertheless, Great Britain has little reason to be dis- 
satisfied with what her merchants have achieved in Latin 



114 Paramount Foreign Interests 

America. Exports of more than 115,000,000 pounds 
sterling to one territorial division during a period of read- 
justment following a tremendous crisis constitute no mean 
feat. 

BRITISH CONFIDENCE IN LATIN AMERICA 

The British commercial edifice in Latin America is with- 
out question the most substantial structure erected by any- 
foreign nation. Its foundations are an integral part of 
the foundations of most of the important Latin American 
countries. It has been duplicated by Germany, and in 
a measure improved upon, but has earned a reputation 
for solidity, for sincerity, oftentimes withheld from the 
more brilliant, better advertised rival house. "The word 
of an Englishman" {palahra de ingles) is the gold standard 
of commercial honor throughout Latin America. 

The keystone of British success is the demonstrated con- 
fidence of British businessmen in Latin America and the 
Latin American people. The proofs of their confidence 
are met in tangible form on every hand. 

Englishmen do not hesitate to invest in Latin American 
properties or securities, as do Americans, but appear to 
rate them as high as securities nearer home. The amount 
of British investments in South America is calculated at 
over five and a quarter biUion dollars (about £1,050,000,- 
000). For a representative six months' period, according 
to former President de la Plaza, of Argentina, British 
capital invested in Argentina ($64,046,000) exceeded the 
sum invested in Eussia ($61,220,500) and in the United 
States ($43,995,500) and nearly equaled the total British 
investments in the rest of Europe. The nitrate oficinas 
of Chile have drawn nearly half their capital from British 
sources, and many other huge enterprises all over Latin 
America are dependent on British money. 

That the confidence placed in Latin American securities 
is, in general, deserved may be inferred from the fact that 
about $100,000,000 represents the annual returns in the 
ishape of dividends and interest on their Argentine proper- 
ties to British investors, and that the average yield on the 



Paramount Foreign Interests 115 

five and a quarter billion dollars invested in South America 
by Englishmen was, in 1913, four and seven-tenths per- 
cent — a much better rate, it may be supposed, than could 
then have been obtained at home as an average return on 
such a huge investment spread over highly diversified in- 
dustries and properties. 

But such profits represent by no means the most impor- 
tant or the most durable advantages derived by Great 
Britain from its active support of the vigorous young 
nations of Latin America. 

One of the best illustrations of the subsidiary benefits 
secured by British investments is to be found in the role 
played by British operated railways in Latin America. 
From one end of Latin America to the other, British money 
has stimulated the construction of railroads and dominated 
their operation. Of the 200,948,125 holivares (quoted at 
$.17, March 19, 1921), for example, invested in Venezuelan 
railways, 45 per cent, or nearly one-half, was advanced by 
British interests. Out of approximately 25,000 miles of 
railways in operation in Argentina to-day, over 14,000 
miles, bringing in gross receipts in 1920 of more than 
£37,000,000, are under British control. A Canadian com- 
pany, capitalized at $13,000,000, supplies the electric street- 
car transportation for Sao Paulo, Brazil. In like manner, 
wherever one turns in South America, one is brought face 
to face with instances of Great Britain's predominance in 
all that relates to the handling of passengers and freight. 

The strategic economic value of her combined control 
of ocean and land transportation cannot be computed in 
pounds and pence. The railroads not only serve as feeders 
to numberless British concerns which manufacture rolling 
stock and equipment: they also affect the market for 
British coal and the acquisition and working of oil prop- 
erties, which are now becoming one of Great Britain's chief 
concerns. Thus three of the British railroads in Argentina 
have recently Joined forces in the exploitation of an oil 
concession in the Comodoro Eivadavia fields, and are likely 
in consequence to solve many of their fuel problems, be- 
sides holding in friendly hands supplies of the precious 



116 Paramount Foreign Interests 

combustible so vital to the motive power of the British 
Government. The close connection between command of 
the railroads and such economic and political phases as 
the moving of crops, the influence exerted on railroad 
employees and labor in allied branches, and the executive 
opportunities for Englishmen attracted to Latin America, 
is so evident as not to need pointing out. 

LATIN AMERICAN TRUST IN BRITISH MANAGEMENT 

Due to the Englishman's reputation for efficiency, 
honesty, and business-sense, other public and quasi-public 
utilities have confidently been given over to his charge. 
Tramway-systems, docks, water, light, and power plants 
have been initiated through British activity, and have be- 
come landmarks of high advertising value to the British 
nation. On occasions, Latin American republics have pre- 
ferred British supervision to the kind of attention paid 
by their own governmental departments, as is evidenced 
by the agreement lately entered into between Peru and 
the London Marconi Company, whereby the management 
of the Peruvian postal, telegraphic, and radiotelegraphic 
services was turned over to the latter. For a long time, 
the banking facilities of several of the largest countries 
in Latin America were almost entirely in the hands of 
British interests, and these banks have not only retained 
the patronage and favor of their clients, but also expanded 
immensely and paid handsome dividends. 

The first bank in Argentina, originally known as the 
Casa de Moneda, was established in 1822 by English and 
Argentine capital. Half a century ago, the London and 
River Plate Bank was founded and now has branches in 
most of the important towns of the southern half of the 
continent, extending its accommodations into Brazil and 
last year (1920) opening a Paraguayan branch at Asuncion. 
Its prosperous condition has permitted it to declare divi- 
dends of twenty per cent on many occasions. The London 
and Brazilian Bank has had a similar history. The 
amalgamation of the powerful Anglo-South American Bank 
with the British Bank of South America, now in process, 



Paramount Foreign Interests ll7 

should place the combination at the head of Latin American 
banking houses. Various other British and Canadian banks 
of considerable magnitude testify to the importance of the 
Latin American field in the eyes of British financiers. 

The salient feature of Great Britain's commercial policy 
in Latin America has been the formation of business 
colonies in the foreign countries which serve as permanent 
agents and enter into local business affairs with the status 
of home concerns. 

The Englishman, as a rule, does not affiliate himself 
closely with the social units about him, but maintains an 
attitude of aloofness, sticks to his English habits, plays 
his English sports, has his five-o'clock tea, dresses in the 
English style, and surrounds himself with architectural 
and scenic beauties reminiscent of his beloved Albion. He 
lives his life approximately as he would have lived it in 
England. It is not he who conforms: nor is his non- 
conformity a sign of surliness or lack of sociability. If 
the ways of other peoples had an especial attraction for 
him, he would adopt them: but they do not. Others may 
take up his sports, his sporting terms, his styles, his teas 
— as they usually do for purposes of invidious distinction 
in Latin America wherever there is a nucleus of English- 
men — but he does not proselyte. 

He carries on his business on the same general principle, 
though as a business-creature he is much less inflexible 
than as a social creature. He persists, to be sure, in 
"getting up" his goods plainly, declines more than three 
months' credit, even if a month is lost before the consign- 
ments actually reach their destination, and does not like to 
listen to renewals. On the other hand, he realizes that 
he must have daily contact "with his customers and does 
not attempt to sell solely from his offices in London, Man- 
chester, or Birmingham or through occasional drummers. 
He makes concessions in the spirit of the British colonial 
soldier or administrator, establishing commercial outposts 
on the time-honored British colonial plan, guiding himself 
generally by local conditions, but practically never, unless 
he has come as a poor immigrant to till the soil, severing 



118 Paramount Foreign Interests 

ties with organizations in Great Britain and standing out 
as an individual. In a word, he remains, no matter where 
he may be, an official of that wonderful administrative 
bureau called the United Kingdom. 

These tendencies quite perceptibly distinguish English 
methods in Latin America from German or American 
methods. They perpetuate the colonial system in a modern 
environment. They create an extension of Great Britain 
outward, while at the same time utilizing foreign oppor- 
tunities to the growth and increment of the foreign coun- 
tries. In other words, foreign countries are regarded by 
British businessmen as territories or possessions acquired 
by courtesy, to be developed both for their own sake and 
for the well-being of British business. They involve a 
species of duty or moral responsibility. 

Sir Woodman Burbidge, the managing director of 
Harrods Department Stores, summarizes as follows the 
farsighted endeavors of his house, which is spending two 
million pounds in the extension of its Argentine branches : 

I should like to emphasize one fact which I believe will illus- 
trate in a clear manner that, while Harrods is a business firm, 
it is also striving to do its share in the development of Argen- 
tina and her wonderful resources. I want to point out that a 
large part of the money mentioned will be used in erecting fac- 
tories where we shall employ thousands of workpeople, and I 
fully expect that when we are in full working order we shall 
be paying salaries to 15,000 people. It may not be generally 
known that we shall be turning out seventy million pesos worth 
of manufactured goods in Argentina by the end of 1921, a fifty 
per cent, increase on the previous year's figures. I myself have 
the most unbounded confidence in the possibilities of Argentina, 
and one of my ambitions is to see the industrial side of commerce 
here well developed, and placed in the high position to which 
it is entitled. 

That the broad vision of the British trader is appreciated 
in some of the Latin American countries, a paragraph 
from an editorial in the influential Chilean newspaper, 
El Mercurio, of November 8, 1919, attests with feeling: 

We knew that in Great Britain we had the great master of 
our fundamental political institutions and of our navy; the 



Paramount Foreign Interests 119 

powerful friend who guaranteed our external credit, always giv- 
ing an adequate reception to our signature; the admirable cham- 
pion of our trade, who sent us ships and supplies, received our 
own products, and firmly established on our soil strong aggrega- 
tions of capital and solid business enterprises; but it was still 
to be our privilege to see, as we see at this moment, that in her we 
could also find a sincere observer of our life and institutions, who 
understands thoroughly the evolution and the present state of this 
young nation which is now facing the future with confidence. 

Something, evidently, in the British temperament, which 
defies analysis, has been responsible for the freedom from 
suspicion of sinister motives with which British progress 
in Latin America has been viewed. Neither of the lead- 
ing rivals of Great Britain has been able to inspire such 
trustful confidence. 

THE GERMAN " DRIVE" IN LATIN AMERICA NOT SINISTER 

Perhaps more than any other foreign country, Germany- 
has been suspected of designs on Latin America through 
the medium of peaceful penetration. The ships, banks, 
commercial establishments, agricultural and mineral hold- 
ings, and capital of Germans or of persons of German 
extraction; the colonies composed of German families; the 
scientists, teachers, and public officials having German 
affiliations, were all summoned during the war to assist 
and befriend the mother country in every possible way. 
The "drive" on Latin American sentiment was directed 
through governmental channels, and an air of cohesion 
obtained which ended by convincing many observers that 
a real programme had always been at the bottom of the 
German campaign for Latin American markets. 

All that can be proved, nevertheless, is that German 
companies and individuals were, before the War, compet- 
ing with other companies and individuals and that the 
government was lending them the support which it gave 
German business all over the world. The use made of 
German connections in Latin America did not differ 
materially from the use made of similar connections in 
the United States. 

The methods by which German trade became in a short 



120 Paramount Foreign Interests 

time a formidable rival of the commerce of other nations 
dealing with Latin America are a fascinating study in 
efficiency. They represent the application of psychological 
principles to business. 

Germany, like Great Britain and the United States, is 
a non-Latin country and has enjoyed none of the initial 
advantages of identity of race, traditions, customs and 
manners, and religion on which Spain, Italy, Portugal, 
and in a measure, France, have always been able to count. 
It could not rely on proximity to any part of Latin 
America, as could the United States with reference to 
Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and the north- 
ern regions of South America, to favor its trade, nor could 
jt depend upon an experience tried by time, as was the 
case with Great Britain, to spread its commercial influence 
at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its upward 
thrust started little more than a generation ago, in the 
eighties, and what it has accomplished, surmounting more 
difficulties than any nation dealing with Latin America, 
is of very recent date. Its growth as a power in Latin 
America is comparable and almost synchronous with the 
development of Japan as a world power. 

That phase of German expansion in Latin America which 
is now commonly treated as the most premeditated and 
possibly the most dangerous to Latin America and to 
foreign interests in Latin America appears to have come 
about perfectly naturally, without malice aforethought, and 
so to speak, accidentally. German immigration into Latin 
America was not an invasion or an onslaught, but a slow 
current running parallel with the stream of immigration 
into the United States and originating in the same political, 
economic, and social conditions. 

As has been pointed out by Mr. William C. Wells, of 
the Pan American Union, the first German colony was 
established in Brazil at Leopoldina, in the State of Bahia, 
in 1818, more than a hundred years ago. The influx into 
Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina began in 1824 
and continued at a high rate for about fifty years, there- 
fore antedating the Pan-Germanic ambitions of the last 



Paramount Foreign Interests 121 

of the House of Hohenzollern. The first Chilean colonies 
were established in 1850, at Valdivia. 

No extraordinary accretions have been made to the 
German population of Latin America since the unification 
of the German Empire — the consummation of which 
marks the beginning of the modern combative spirit in 
Germany — and the bugaboo of a Germanized Latin 
America can safely be said to have existed only in the 
imagination of prejudiced persons. The total German 
population of Brazil to-day probably does not exceed 
500,000, and that of Latin America as a whole, 1,000,000. 
The proportion of Germans to the entire population in 
Latin America or in any single Latin American country 
is much smaller than in the United States, where, in 1910, 
there were 2,501,333 Germans among the foreign-born 
population and nearly 8,000,000 of German stock. 

The importance of German settlements to the commerce 
of Germany did not, of course, escape the eyes of the 
Imperial Government: but it is impossible, with the facts 
before us, to subscribe to the fanciful ideas lately current 
concerning the subservience of German colonization to 
Pan-German plans. The German settlers in Latin America 
have wielded no undue political influence nor constituted 
the most significant element in the German commercial 
campaign : and great numbers of them have intermarried 
with Latin American families and became ardent Brazil- 
ians, Chileans, Paraguayans, Argentinians, Guatemalans. 
Such incidents as the administrative pro-Germanism of 
Argentina during the War — ^which ran counter to the 
popular feeling — were due, not mainly to the influence 
of citizens of German extraction, but to the machinations 
of German ambassadors and capitalists and to the polit- 
ical notions of such men as President Irigoyen as to 
what was best for their country. 

Looked at in judicious retrospect, the instrumentali- 
ties invoked in behalf of Germany's "place in the sun" 
in Latin America offer nothing diabolic. They are in 
•fact, for the most part, German imitations of the methods 



122 Paramount Foreign Interests 

employed by British manufacturers, merchants, financiers, 
and governmental officials. 

Before the War, Germany held the third place among 
foreign countries trading with Latin America. It was 
still far behind the United States and Great Britain in the 
amount of its purchases from Latin America. In 1913 
Germany bought only 193 million dollars' worth of Latin 
American products to Great Britain's 314 million, and 
the United States' 481 million: and much of what it 
bought was destined for the United States, and not for 
its own centers. But what is prophetic is that Germany 
was quickly overhauling Great Britain in exports to Latin 
America, and particularly to the southern section of South 
America, which had been a British stronghold from time 
immemorial. ^ 

To the $328,951,681 of exports from the United States 
to Latin America in 1913 and to the $284,786,580 of Great 
Britain, Germany could oppose $219,566,276 : and to Great 
Britain's exports in 1913 valued at $255,034,179 to the 
six southern countries of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, 
Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, Germany could oppose its 
own exports to the same countries amounting to 
$175,744,271. 

Because of such significant facts, many observers have 
unquestionably felt that, but for the war, Germany and 
Great Britain might be in reversed positions to-day with 
regard to exports to Latin America. 

All the agencies which Great Britain had used in the 
extension of her Latin American interests Germany 
employed with scientific efficiency, and usually improved 
upon her model. The German merchant marine rapidly 
overtook the commercial navies of" such maritime coun- 
tries as Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and 
soon was giving the British merchant marine a close race. 
In passenger service, German steamships became the ne plus 
ultra: in freight-handling, their organization, helped by 
the care given to each minute detail by the German shipper, 
was nearly perfect. Investments were generously made, 
but they were commonly of a private nature, and a neces- 



Paramount Foreign Interests 123 

sary corollary to the furtherance of ordinary business 
transactions. The assumption, indeed, that Germany was 
attempting to control whole governments in Latin America 
through fiscal loans has never been based on anything 
more substantial than hostile prejudice, for, of the loans 
negotiated by Chile since 1885, only 13% per cent was 
assumed by Germany; in the foreign loans contracted 
by Argentina down to 1913, Germany's share amounted 
to only a little over £2,000,000 out of a total of more than 
£136,000,000; and among the majority of Latin American 
countries Germany has had practically no participation 
at all in loans contracted by the individual governments. 
Strong German banks, such as the Banco Aleman 
Transatlantico, the Banco Germanico, the Brasilianische 
Bank fiir Deutschland, the Banco de Chile y Alemania, 
were established, but they operated, like most foreign 
banks in Latin America, largely on the money of de- 
positors and the capital furnished by Latin American 
citizens. During most of their history, the German banks 
in Latin America played no imperial role, and were able 
to be of only minor assistance to Germany; at the out- 
break of the War. 

That all these auxiliaries of German commerce — bank- 
ing, loans, investments, shipping, and colonization — 
might, but for the War, have become a powerful govern- 
mental arm in such imperialistic aims in Latin America 
as were cherished by the Pan-German party, is possible. 
Germany's policy of backing German commerce by official 
encouragement and by the injection of a coordinating 
iGerman consciousness into private enterprises might well 
have led to far-reaching autocratic consequences. But 
no real evidence is at hand to prove that a "master- 
mind" was directing from Germany the daily schedule 
of German business in Latin America. 

GERMAN DOCTRINE OP " SERVICE" 

In reality, though these agencies contributed in a highly 
significant way to Germany's excellent standing in Latin 
America, by far her most effective asset has been her 



124 Paramount Foreign Interests 

doctrine of "service" as applied to international trade. 
Germany alone has supplied modern "service" to Latin 
America. Not only have great Britain and the United 
States been woefully deficient in their conception of inter- 
national trade "service," but even France and Spain, 
zealous as they are for Latin American patronage, have 
rarely given the subject a moment's thought. 

Spanish Americans and Spaniards living in America [observes 
Don Ricardo Beltran y Rozpide] are more consistent than we. 
They have their eyes fixed steadfastly on Spain, and their great 
newspapers devote a large amount of space to Spanish politics, 
to our men, to our scientific and literary movements. They know 
us much better over there than we know them. Here we do 
not even read their newspapers. There are in Madrid societies 
frequented by our most prominent political, literary, and scien- 
tific personages in the libraries and reading-rooms of which you 
will not find a single Spanish American newspaper nor a single 
Spanish American periodical. 

Germany, on the contrary, systematized her informa- 
tional and business resources with a view to eliminating 
haphazard procedure in her dealings with Latin America. 
Reliable reports were made available to her merchants 
and financiers. A central bureau for emigration to Latin 
America was operated under governmental direction. The 
Spanish and Portuguese languages were practically and 
intensively taught. Hispanic culture and social customs 
were included in the courses followed by men preparing 
for the Latin American field. Scientists and scholars were 
put freely at the disposition of Latin American govern- 
ments, and scholars and scientists from Latin America, 
such as Dr. Oswaldo Cruz of Brazil, were welcomed into 
German intellectual circles and institutions, imbued with 
respectful admiration for German methods and learning, 
and honored by election to German societies and by 
awards of distinction. The business practices of Latin 
America were diligently conned, and, with the slogan of 
"service" to the customer committed to memory by every; 
German merchant and salesman, all the minutiae of pack- 
ing, customs house regulations, tariff, routing, lighterage, 
local conditions, and likings were painstakingly followed 



Paramount Foreign Interests 125 

in order that the Latin American client might feel his 
importance and rest assured of the endeavor of the Ger- 
man businessman to satisfy him on all points. 

The readiness with which the German merchant effaced 
himself in the interests of his trade was equaled only bjj 
the genial good-fellowship and sympathy which he dis- 
played in his intercourse with people of Latin extraction. 
Unable to inspire cordiality or confidence among nations 
of his own racial stock, and incapable of comprehending 
the ultimate psychology of Englishmen or Americans, 
the German has shown a marvelous aptitude in winning 
the heart of Latin Americans and in understanding their 
mental and spiritual reactions. 

GERMANY "COMING BACK" IN LATIN AMERICA 

Through these habits of adaptability and ' ' service, ' ' 
Germany is finding it less difficult to regain her commer- 
cial position in Latin America than the crisis through 
which she has passed would lead us to expect. 

Already the suspicions aroused by the war have been 
allayed. Chile has recently granted the Krupps the right 
to acquire land in the Province of Llanquihue for the 
purpose of building an immense steel and munition plant, 
and German workmen are now preparing to settle in the 
neighborhood. Herr Hugo Stinnes has obtained large 
tracts of land in the Territory of Neuquen, Argentina, 
and is exploiting the oil deposits in that region. The 
Hamburg-Colombian Bananen Aktien-Gesellschaft is 
developing the banana industry along the Gulf of Uraba 
on the general lines originated by the United Fruit Com- 
pany. The Solingen district of Germany has actively 
resumed its exports of small iron and steel goods to 
Argentina, in which it excelled before the war, and 
according to the Director of the German-Argentinian 
Central Association in Berlin, German manufacturers fore- 
see a strong recuperation in their sales of threshing 
machines, motor plows, grinding mills, and the like. 
German competition in paper, steel, and hardware has 
become extremely keen in the southern portion of South 



126 Paramount Foreign Interests 

America, aided by the favorable export influence of 'aS 
depreciated German currency. 

Hundreds of other items can be cited to demonstrate 
that Germany is successfully reaching out again, that 
her lost steamships are being replaced with marvelous 
speed, and that the commercial fear with which she 
inspired other nations before the War is again working 
overtime. It has even been said that the mark is kept 
down merely to enable German firms to undersell their 
British and American rivals! 

While adaptability, "service," efficiency, organization, 
and expediency have been the outstanding features of 
Germany's policy in Latin American trade, the contrary 
seems to have characterized the Latin American business 
of the United States. 

WEAKNESS OF FORMER AMERICAN METHODS 

It would be idle to rehearse the reproaches heaped by 
our own commercial experts, writers, and travelers on 
American merchants and manufacturers for their slip- 
shod management of a market which already consumes 
a fourth of our total exports. A great deal of the criti- 
cism is deserved, though too much of it is uttered with- 
out regard for such establishments as W. R. Grace and 
Company, the American Steel Products Company, the 
Singer Sewing Machine Company, the National Cash 
Register Company, which rank among the most compe- 
tent firms trading in Latin America. 

Whatever mistakes have been committed, the fact re- 
mains that the United States has already passed both 
Great Britain and Germany in Latin American commerce. 

Until a few years ago, American business in Latin 
America appeared planless and purely individualistic. 
Our trade, like Topsy, "just grew." That, however, was 
really the case with British and German trade, at the 
start, also. During the next ten years, the tradition is 
likely to spring up that American commerce in Latin 
America was fostered mainly through governmental and 
individual cooperation: but the assertion will be without 



Paramount Foreign Interests 127 

foundation. Our Latin American business, which is now 
* * made, ' ' has developed by trial and error and as a result 
of particular conditions. 

How the United States has risen to leadership in Latin 
American commerce is not at all easy to analyze. The 
war cannot explain our privileged position at the present 
moment. Great Britain and Germany have been making 
unheard-of efforts to regain their old status, and have 
been favored by their depreciated currency, by the 
premium on American money, and by their imperative 
need of the largest possible outlet for their products; 
yet the United States retains the gains which it made 
during the war and is consistently adding to them. From 
one end of Latin America to the other, America to-day 
holds the supremacy in trade. 

AMERICAN BUSINESSMEN MAKING A GALLANT FIGHT 

The theory that the United States can surpass Great 
Britain and Germany only in those articles in which it 
has a natural monopoly or in which it manufactures on 
a huge production basis is no longer tenable. An exami- 
nation of the imports of various countries, and notably 
of Brazil, demonstrates that in almost every line of manu- 
facture — including arms and ammunition, automobiles and 
accessories, chemical products, cotton goods, dry goods, 
electrical machinery and supplies, iron and steel manu- 
factures, agricultural machinery, office supplies, musical 
instruments, paper, rubber manufactures, jewelry, scien- 
tific instruments — and in many branches of foodstuffs 
and wearing apparel, the United States has secured the 
first rank. Unknown to the general public, our men of 
industry are making a gallant fight in Latin America. 
In less than half a dozen years, they have established 
most of the trade relations in which Great Britain, Ger- 
many, France, and Spain excelled, and are lacking in 
practically only one important auxiliary, namely, Amer- 
ican colonization in Latin America. 

The three elements of modern American business in 
Latin America which are distinctly new are: (1) adequate 



128 Paramount Foreign Interests 

American shipping; (2) investments; and (3) banking 
facilities. "Team-work" in the interests of trade has also 
been developed recently : but it has existed for some time 
in the admirable endeavors of the Pan American Union 
and the energy of its former Director, Mr. John Barrett, 
and of its present Director, Dr. Leo S. Rowe, in the 
popularization of Latin America by the South American, 
the Pan American Magazine, several other general period- 
icals, and some technical reviews, in consular reports, and 
in the daily reports of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 
Commerce. 

Latterly, the visits of American officials and travelers, 
the exchange of teachers, the employment of American 
scientists, and, in especial, of American geologists, the 
celebration of Pan American congresses, the publication by 
banking institutions of such helpful periodicals as The 
Americas by the National City Bank, the more liberal 
space allowed to Latin American affairs in our newspapers, 
and the creation of American chambers of commerce in 
Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Havana, 
Asuncion (Paraguay), La Paz (Bolivia), have formed a 
network of intellectual communication which, if it con- 
tinues to expand, should actually realize the cherished 
ambition of the friends of both continents to see the three 
Americas — North America, Central America, and South 
America — ^brought together in sincere comity and co- 
operation. 

Some day, too, Latin American civilization and progress 
will undoubtedly be taught in our public schools on a par 
with medieval history, and probably with as useful, if 
not, indeed, more useful results. 

Whether or not the United States will maintain its ocean 
transportation at the height to which jt has risen has be- 
come a highly debatable question. With the dismantling 
of some of the shipbuilding plants erected during the war 
and the wholesale criticism leveled at the Shipping Board, 
the impression is gaining ground that we are growing 
lukewarm over our merchant marine. Again arguments 
are presented to prove that it does not matter who con- 



Paramount Foreign Interests 129 

veys our goods, so long as the transaction is economically 
profitable to our merchants. On the face of it, this argu- 
ment seems valid : and if it were accepted at its face value, 
we should be justified in allowing our ships to swing idly 
at their mooring — at a considerable expense to the tax- 
payers, of course — or in selling them to Germany and 
Japan, or in scrapping them altogether. 

DISADVANTAGES OF SHIPPING IN THE VESSELS OF COMPETITORS 

But there is another side to the problem, touched on by 
the Rev. John F. O'Hara, which is not without point: 

Non- American agents, through a false notion of loyalty to their 
mother country, have devised propaganda against American ship- 
ping. They will tell you that the Shipping Board boats are 
unseaworthy, that they are falling to pieces, that their upkeep 
costs more than their income, that America never has been or 
never will be a shipping nation, and that the United States Gov- 
ernment has no business depriving foreigners of an honest living 
by competing with them in a business that is theirs by right of 
inheritance. I say that they will tell you these things because 
they have told them to me, and they are so intent upon their 
own purpose of driving American shipping from the seas, that 
they are careless who knows of their propaganda against it. 
The more intensely loyal they are to their mother country, the 
more they feel it their duty to discredit American shipping and 
American business generally. 

The same thought was in Mr. Root's mind when, in 1906, 
he stated : * ' It is only reasonable to expect that European 
steamship lines shall be so managed as to promote European 
trade in South America, rather than to promote the trade 
of the United States in South America." 

America, however, does not surrender readily anything 
which it has undertaken, and it is inconceivable that, at 
the very moment when we have discovered that our pros- 
perity rests on our foreign commerce, we should give up 
our most important trade vehicle. If the control of a 
large percentage of the world's shipping means much to 
Great Britain and Germany, it should mean at least as 
much to us. The subsidiary benefits derived from thriv- 
ing shipbuilding plants, the utilization of all the materials 



130 Paramount Foreign Interests 

that go into the construction of ships, the maintenance oi' 
naval architecture as a profession, and the employment of 
thousands of workmen, may constitute a significant item 
in our industrial life, especially in view of the recent 
action taken with regard to naval armaments. 

In 1913, according to the United States Bureau of 
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, *'not a single American 
vessel arrived at Buenos Aires. In 1914 there were 6 ; in 
1915, 73; in 1916, 140; and in 1917, 151." In 1919, 335 
American vessels carrying 822,609 tons arrived In Argen- 
tina. By the end of 1920, the total shipping in our Latin 
American trade amounted to about 39,000,000 tons, an in- 
crease of 52 per cent over the 1914 figure, and of 541/0 
per cent over the figures for 1919. Of these, 31,000,000 
tons, or 79 per cent, were registered under the American 
flag. The record is hardly short of amazing. 

RAPID PROGRESS OF AMERICAN SHIPPING 

The advance made in American shipbuilding and the 
rapidity with which the American merchant marine is 
catching up with the British are evident from these 
figures : 

Tonnage 
1914 1920 (June 30) 

Great Britain 19,799,119 20,582,652 

United States 7,928,688 16,049,289 

That some relation exists between the increase in our 
Latin American commerce from about $750,000,000 in 1914 
to over $3,000,000,000 in 1920 and the increase in our 
shipping tonnage from 7,928,688 in 1914 to 16,049,289 in 
1920 appears probable. 

The close relation between investments and commerce in 
foreign countries is universally admitted. Investments may 
be of various kinds, and may include what Miss L. E. 
Elliott calls ' ' investment in personality, ' ' or the domiciling 
of resident employees, administrative officials, and colonists. 
In this, and in the more usual forms of investment, con- 
sisting in the acquisition of foreign properties and in the 



Paramount Foreign Interests 131 

participation in state and municipal loans and the purchase 
of various species of foreign securities, the activities of 
American businessmen and investors have lately under- 
gone a noticeable transformation. The charge that Amer- 
icans show no interest in the development of Latin America, 
though never strictly true, lacks to-day whatever force it 
once had. The principal factor in the change has been 
the entry of American banking houses in Latin American 
finance. 

AMERICAN BANKS IN LATIN AMERICA 

Less than ten years ago, American banks in Latin 
America were conspicuous by their absence, banks in the 
United States were chary of Latin American negotiations, 
and Latin American securities were not, with rare excep- 
tions, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. An Amer- 
ican, who was so fortunate as to obtain the concession for 
building the subway in Buenos Aires, was obliged to forego 
his privilege because of his utter inability to interest Amer- 
ican capital. 

Finally, [relates Dr. Aughinbaugh,] a German raised the money 
in Hamburg, and now everything about the line from electrical 
installation to the motorman and his uniform is "Made in Ger- 
many." Being the first and only underground in Latin America 
it was written about and talked of everywhere, and at all times 
the Germans got credit for the enterprise and were well adver- 
tised as efficient and wonderful engineers. 

An American investor, who asked the advice of a pro- 
fessor of economics about placing some of his money in 
bonds of the municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil — one of the 
richest and most progressive cities of the Western Hemis- 
phere — ^was urgently counseled to abstain 'because of the 
notorious instability of South American governments!' 
With the advent of American banks in Latin America, such 
occurrences are bound to become rare. 

There are now in the neighborhood of 100 branches of 
American banks in Latin America. Of these, 42 controlled 
by the National City Bank of New York are located in the 



132 Paramount Foreign Interests 

Caribbean region alone, a territory whose commerce* 
approximates $2,000,000,000 annually. Other branches 
have been established in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, 
Uruguay. The Mercantile Bank of the Americas has 35 
affiliated branches jn Central and South America. The 
First National Bank of Boston, the Anglo and London 
Paris National Bank of San Francisco, and other impor- 
tant American financial institutions have at this moment 
direct banking connections with Latin America. In many 
instances, these banks have erected their own palatial 
buildings in the most expensive portions of the business dis- 
tricts of Latin American cities, the first National Bank of 
Boston having paid about two million pesos for the lots 
alone, at the corner of Florida and the Avenida Diagonal, 
Buenos Aires, on which to put up its Argentine head- 
quarters. 

With the banks have come investments : but it must not 
be supposed that American capital was previously entirely 
lacking. In the northern countries of Latin America, such 
as Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Amer- 
ican money has predominated for some time. Of the total 
national wealth of Mexico, amounting to about two and a 
half billion dollars in 1912, over one billion dollars came 
from American sources, and of the $700,000,000 of mining 
properties, $500,000,000 is American. The United Fruit 
Company has expended $200,000,000 in Central America 
and nearby regions. 

Enormous sums of American money are tied up in 
Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian oil, in the copper and 
tin districts of Chile and Bolivia, in the nitrate oficinas 
of the Grace Nitrate Company and the Du Pont Nitrate 
Company, in Chile, in the asphalt deposits of Cuba and 
Venezniela, and in the sugar ingenios of the West Indies. 
More recently, American packers have bought large tracts 
of land and constructed model packing plants in Argen- 
tina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. The Armours, the 
Morrises, the Swifts, and the Wilsons, anticipating the part 

* Including that of Porto Eico, the Virgin Islands, and the British^ 
Putch^ and French West Indies, 



Paramount Foreign Interests 133 

to be played by Latin American meats in feeding the world 
and the diminishing role of cattle-raising in the United 
States, have carried their activities over into southern South 
America, the Armours have built a $10,000,000 packing 
plant in Brazil, and another American firm has established 
a large plant at Cispata, Colombia. 

A detailed list of the American investment in private 
enterprises in Latin America would astonish the general 
public because of its vastness and the relative suddenness 
with which it has seized opportunities. 

The most immediate result of the establishment of Amer- 
ican banks in Latin America lies in the awakening of con- 
fidence in Latin American securities on the part of 
American financial institutions and individuals. Few 
foreign government securities, as a matter of fact, offer 
as much safety and profit as those of the more prominent 
Latin American republics, and only lack of knowledge has 
deterred earlier and larger investments. The European 
investor has not had qualms on this score, since the Latin 
American investment field appears no more hazardous to 
him than any other, his information being quite accurate 
and unbiased. Under the stimulus of American banks 
on the ground, Americans are certain to drop their provin- 
cial timidity. The banks have already done so. 

The International Banking Corporation of New York 
was not long ago appointed the depository of the funds 
of the Dominican Republic with the understanding that it 
should maintain up to 40 branches or agencies in the island. 
The Department of Cauca, Colombia, negotiated a loan of 
1,000,000 pesos gold with the firm of Amsinck of New York. 
The Bolivian Government has contracted a loan of $10,- 
000,000 with a New York investment house. The State of 
Santa Catharina, Brazil, has arranged a loan of $5,000,000 
in the United States for the construction of railways and 
for public utilities. American bankers have loaned the 
Argentine Government $15,000,000 in 6 per cent gold notes, 
and the securities were sold out before four o'clock of the 
day on which they were put on the market. An issue of 
$7,500,000 for the Uruguayan Government, announced by 



134 Paramount Foreign Interests 

the National City Company, has been practically all sold 
at the time of this writing, and it is reported that the 
National Administration 0:6 Posts and Telephones of 
Uruguay has just signed a provisional contract with a 
bankers' syndicate, led by the Equitable Trust Company, 
for a loan of $9,000,000 to be used in the construction of 
an underground telephone system and to be expended in 
the United States for materials. An effort is now being 
made to interest American capital in governmental and 
municipal loans and in private enterprises for the develop- 
ment of the oil shale, sugar-beet, flax, timber, and wood- 
pulp industries in Chile. 

American financiers and investors, then, as is evident from 
the above partial data taken at random, are now becoming 
aware of the solid, legitimate opportunities in the south 
of Latin America as well as in the north, and have already 
made progress toward contributing to the internal develop- 
ment of the Latin American countries. As in commerce 
and in shipping, so also in banking and investments, a new 
situation has arisen. The hegemony of the British and 
German banks has been thrown open to debate, at least, 
and private initiative has been directed toward the 
advantages of pioneer profits in lands naturally rich and 
still highly undeveloped. 

Enough testimony has been presented to demonstrate 
that the commercial and industrial progress of Latin 
America has depended on the enterprise of the great non- 
Latin nations, Great Britain, Germany, and the United 
States, and that these nations have been markedly success- 
ful in dealing with peoples of different stock, religion, social 
customs, and traditions. The methods of Great Britain, 
Germany, and the United States, while dissimilar in the 
beginning, have come to resemble one another in essentials, 
and may now be summed up as consisting of ''service" 
to the Latin American countries and of cooperation be- 
tween the individuals and organizations of each of the 
foreign nations and the Latin American countries. 

The next step in the evolution of preponderating foreign 
influences in Latin America is likely to be even more 



Paramount Foreign Interests 135 

curious than the steps already taken. Japan, another non- 
Latin nation, has definitely adopted the western commer- 
cial system, has a considerable standing on the West Coast 
of South America, is opening banks, investing capital, and 
increasing its shipping in Latin America, and in some of 
the republics has already surged ahead of Germany, France, 
and Italy. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

In many respects the political relations of the Latin 
American republics with one another and with foreign 
countries are unique, or nearly so. Latin America has yet 
to pass through the evolutionary stages out of which 
modern political organization has developed. With a 
twentieth century mind and in twentieth century surround- 
ings, it must trace a course through seventeenth or early 
eighteenth century obstacles while a highly sophisticated 
modern world looks on and interjects its various and often 
conflicting influences. Its national policies, tariffs, 
armaments, and even, to some extent, its boundaries are 
in a state of flux. Its unenviable position is that of a 
section of the globe which has not ' ' caught up ' ' and never- 
theless feels an imperative need of ''catching up" without 
delay. 

Moreover, its political evolution is not free. The main- 
tenance of the Monroe Doctrine by the United States for 
about one hundred years has deprived it of liberty of 
action. No matter what the merits of that Doctrine may 
be, nor how useful it may have been to Latin America in 
the past, nor how necessary an instrument to our own 
safety, the fact remains that it has made Latin American 
political relations one-sided. 

THE NORTH AMERICAN PERIL 

Spain closed the markets of Latin America for several 
centuries to foreign traders and created a pressure from 
within which opened gaps in the monopolistic wall and 
finally in the eighteenth century broke down the wall it- 
self. Clandestine trading or smuggling both by the 
colonists and by European merchantmen and privateers 

136 



The Monroe Doctrine 137 

nullified the dog-in-the manger policy of Spain, which, of 
course, was after all nothing but the general commercial 
policy of all European governments at the time. Our 
jealous watchfulness over Latin America in a political 
way appears to be leading to like results. Accepted at 
first in the spirit in which it was enunciated, as a protec- 
tion to Latin America against European aggression, the 
Monroe Doctrine has become to-day in the Spanish- 
American republics a cordially disliked political pronounce- 
ment. Brazil alone views it with equanimity and friend- 
liness. To the rest of Latin America it is synonymous with 
"the North American peril" and is taken much more 
seriously than the overrated German or Japanese "peril." 

So long as our statesmen were able to reassure Latin 
America as to the essential benevolence of the Monroe 
Doctrine it was possible for the United States to allay the 
suspicions of overheated imaginations and to emphasize 
the real advantages which have accrued to Latin America 
through our firmness in upholding the principles of the 
Declaration of 1823. It has even been possible for them 
to interpret charitably and in the spirit of international 
comity the positive statements of Secretary Olney, during 
Cleveland's administration, and of President Roosevelt. 

But the growing number of American publicists who, 
like Professor Hiram Bingham in Tlie Monroe Doctrine 
an Obsolete Shibboleth,, strongly doubt the present appli- 
cability of President Monroe's enunciation, and the appear- 
ance of books, chapters of books, or articles partaking of 
the ideas presented by Professor Archibald C Coolidge, 
the director of the Harvard University Library, in The 
United States as a World Power, have confirmed Latin 
American leaders in their belief in the malevolent tenden- 
cies of the Monroe Doctrine. 

Neglecting the plain fact that the skepticism about the 
Monroe Doctrine in the United States is as legitimate and 
representative a public opinion as its opposite, and per- 
haps a more sincere one because held only by thoughtful 
persons without political or financial interests, Latin Amer- 



138 The Monroe Doctrine 

iean writers are prone to seize on self-evident statements 
like the following, uttered in the tone of dispassionate 
historical inquiry, and to draw the sort of conclusions pre- 
valent during the European War in discussions of von 
Treitsehke's and Bernhardi's imperialistic works: 

When two contiguous States [quotes Seiior F. Garcia Cal- 
deron from The United States as a World Power, by Professor 
Coolidge] are separated by a long line of frontiers and one of 
the two rapidly increases, full of youth and vigour, while the 
other possesses, together with a small population, rich and de- 
sirable territories, and is troubled by continual revolutions which 
exhaust and weaken it, the first will inevitably encroach upon the 
second, just as water will always seek to regain its own level. 

LATIN AMERICAN NOTION OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE 
MONROE DOCTRINE 

Naturally, a patriotic Latin American, reading these 
lines, is filled with fear and foreboding, and treats Senor 
Calderon's deduction that "The Monroe Doctrine has 
undergone an essential transformation; it has passed 
successively from the defensive to intervention and thence 
to the offensive" as an irrefragable logical sequence. The 
intention of President Wilson to expand the Monroe Doe- 
trine to a Pan American Doctrine in which Latin America 
should have equal privileges and an equal responsibility 
with the United States is regarded as the well-meaning 
but futile attempt of a large-minded American statesman 
to counteract, like King Canute, an irresistible current. 
The action of the United States in the recent Panama- 
Costa Rica controversy and President Harding's reaffirma- 
tion of the Monroe Doctrine are taken as far more typical 
of our true attitude toward Latin America. 

To either a disinterested or an interested foreign observer 
the imperialistic indictment brought against the United 
States may, indeed, seem formidable. The charges of inter- 
vention, seizure, and military and economic pressure 
made by Seiior Blanco-Fombona in his introduction to 
Sarmiento's Facundo can be augmented materially. 

Several presidents of the United States have advocated 
the annexation of Cuba and Santo Domingo; Porto Rico 



The Monroe Doctrine 139 

is now our ''possession"; we have acquired the Virgin 
Islands in the Caribbean for which we bid a score of years 
ago ; we have fortified the Panama Canal ; we as genuinely 
control Mexico and Central America from a political stand- 
point as if we exercised a de facto protectorate over those 
countries; as a result of the affair of the Itata, followed 
by an attack on sailors of the American cruiser Baltimore 
at Valparaiso, an ultimatum was sent to Chile from Wash- 
ington; because of American intervention Argentina feels 
that it lost the Falkland Islands to Great Britain; our 
watchfulness over Latin America appears to have increased 
rather than to have diminished during the first year of 
President Harding's administration, and the dispatching 
of General Crowder to Cuba, Secretary Hughes' note in 
the Panama-Costa Rica broil, our firm resolve not to 
recognize General Obregon's government in Mexico until 
guarantees are given, and our expressions of disapproval 
concerning the proposed revival of Brazilian valorization 
of coffee seem to Latin Americans to hark back to the era 
of the "big stick"; and the rapid and extraordinary de- 
velopment of American trusts in Latin America — the meat 
trust, the copper and tin trust, the petroleum trust, the 
bank trust — is convincing proof to many Latin Americans 
that what we do not take by forcible annexation we are 
sure to absorb by peaceful penetration. 

The Yankee "peril," then, looms up again on the Latin 
American horizon, and Professor Coolidge's thought, in- 
sisted on rather noticeably throughout the volume above 
mentioned, which was based on his lectures at the Sor- 
bonne in 1906-7 and printed in 1908, once more represents 
the Latin American conception of the real attitude of the 
United States and the philosophy, often blandly masked, 
behind it : 

History shows that the close association of weak states and 
strong ones may be dangerous, sooner or later, to the independ- 
ence of the former. At the present moment, the United States, 
as regards strength, is in somewhat the same position as was 
Prussia toward the other members of the German Zollverein, that 
is to say, it has a larger population, greater actual wealth, more 
available resources, — in. a word, is stronger in almost every re- 



140 The Monroe Doctrine 

spect, not only than any one of the Latin American republics, 
but than all of them put together. Such a disproportion is for- 
midable to the weaker states, and though with the growth of 
Argentina and Brazil it will diminish before long, the day when 
any likely combination of the Latin republics will be the equal 
of the Anglo-Saxon one is still far ahead. We must admit, too, 
that the history of the growth of the United States is not entirely 
reassuring to the Latin Americans ; in particular the story of the 
Mexican War will always frighten them. 

The latest evidence of our jealous adherence to the 
Monroe Doctrine was given when the United States refused 
to permit the League of Nations to arbitrate in the Panama- 
Costa Eica boundary dispute, though both the contestants 
were willing to submit their contentions to that body and 
a previous settlement of tEe difficulty had been made in 
1900 outside of the United States, by President Loubet of 
France. 

CONTRADICTORY APPLICATIONS OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

Because of its practical inconsistencies, the Monroe 
Doctrine, or rather, its application at different periods in 
our history, has come to be a Protean international 
principle. By virtue of our ability and desire to enforce 
it, we refuse to allow Panama and Costa Rica to have 
recourse to the arbitral services of the League of Nations : 
yet, in spite of our declared opposition, we have not in 
the past objected to the selection of the Czar of Russia as 
the arbitrator in the boundary differences of Brazil and 
French Guiana. We cannot even consider the existence 
or extension of European dependencies on the Western 
Hemisphere beyond those held before the enunciation of 
the Monroe Doctrine, nor the transfer of any portion of 
Latin America from one European power to another, as 
Henry Clay made clear in 1825 in declaring that the United 
States would not permit Spain to transfer Cuba and Porto 
Rico to any other European governments: yet, in 1878 
Sweden made over to France the island of St. Barthelemy 
without protest from the United States. We admit, nay 
rather, insist on the rights of nations and particularly on 
the right of self-determination, yet constantly interfere with 



The Monroe Doctrine 141 

the national aspirations of the Latin American nations 
near us and far from us. We stand for the open door in 
China in a commercial sense, yet shut the door tight on 
Latin America in a political sense, denying the privilege 
of foreign alliances to the Latin American republics. We 
foster Pan Americanism by special bureaus, conferences, 
and the interchange of teachers and students, yet oppose "* 

anything like bona fide Pan Americanism by arousing dis- 
trust through concrete acts. We yearn for the trade of 
Argentina, yet contemplate placing heavy duties on Argen- 
tine wheat and beef and feel that Argentina is not playing 
the game properly when she threatens to retaliate by im- 
posing heavy duty restrictions on our exports to her 
markets. 

Fundamentally, of course, the Monroe Doctrine is an 
expression of political opportunism in its barest terms. 
It is not a part of international law, though it commands // 
the respect of nations. It was conceived in a broad spirit//' 
and has often been applied in a narrow spirit. It is sus- ' 
ceptible of infinite manipulation, and may be advanced 
at one time as a measure of protection to struggling 
nations and at another time as a measure of self-protec- 
tion. It has forced upon us the duties of guardian and 
policeman, though in all probability those duties would 
have thrust themselves upon us, Monroe Doctrine or no. 
It has been extended far beyond its natural limits and 
far beyond its natural time. To revoke it is almost an 
impossibility and would very likely prove useless, for 
it is not President Monroe's declaration which to-day 
constitutes the real Monroe Doctrine, but the posture /j^^"" 
of events and the conditions of a modern y^^A^^^ 
The political supervision which we exercise in our part 
of the world differs neither in kind nor in degree from 
the supervision of Oriental affairs by Great Britain, 
Japan, and the United States. Without the Monroe Doc- .: 
trine, our attitude toward Mexico, Central America, Cuba, \ \ 
and the other Caribbean countries would be exactly what I \ 
it is at the present time. The Monroe Doctrine is, in fact, ■ I 
nothing more to-day than an antiquated term for a more * 



142 The Monroe Doctrine 

modern situation than its creator had in mind. From the 
linguistic point of view, it is an obsolete expression, like 
"horseless carriage," or "erstwhile," or " preterlapsed, " 
or "nephalism." 

All discussion, then, as to the right or wrong of the 
Monroe Doctrine, is aimless. The only valid question is 
whether or not the United States is assuming too much 
in its contemporary Latin American policy or policies: 
"policies," perhaps, rather than "policy," because our 
actions do not flow from a single, immutable standard — 
a fact which sometimes bewilders foreigners, but is 
unavoidable in such a complex, vital, and ever-changing 
field as political and social relations. For the sake of 
simplicity, however, the term "Latin American policy" 
may here be substituted for "Monroe Doctrine" in order 
to obviate the prejudiced connotation which surrounds 
the latter phrase. 

JUSTIFIABLE POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD THE 
CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES 

Our Latin American policy with respect to the Carib- 
bean countries can be defended from both the political 
and the economic standpoints. A turbulent Mexico, Cuba, 
Central America, Venezuela, or Colombia touches our in- 
terests too closely to be viewed with passive scientific 
curiosity. Marauding and filibustering committed at our 
doors may have the same effect as if committed within 
our doors; for a perfectly self-contained nuisance is as 
rare in private or public life as an absolute void. Through 
long dealings we have built up a mutually beneficial com- 
merce which is far more important to the Caribbean 
countries than their commerce with any other nation, and 
is of mnch more value to us than the general public 
imagines. The Panama Canal route gives us the same 
interests along the Caribbean that Great Britain has in 
the vicinity of the Suez Canal. Internal disturbances in 
the Caribbean republics are infallibly translated into ex- 
ternal disturbances, and therefore affect us intimately 
and immediately. American capital is dominant within 



/! 



The Monroe Doctrine 143 

the Caribbean area and, as the most significant factor in 
stimulating material progress, wields a decisive economic 
and political influence. In 1911, for example, Nicaragua 
found itself in sad straits because American bankers with- 
drew their help in the way of loans as a result of the 
rejection by the United States Senate of the treaties 
negotiated by Senator Knox; and the unsettled political 
conditions led to intervention by force of arms to pro- 
tect American property and lives. 

Thus far, at any rate, our Latin American policy in 
the Caribbean countries, though never entirely satisfac- 
tory to those republics or to ourselves, has been more 
than ordinarily forbearing and just. It is useless to 
deny that financial and commercial considerations, as well ^^n^ 
as the feeling of preponderance, have in the majority of y\^ 
cases determined particular action on the part of the 
United States. Those are the motives which mold 
politics everywhere, and are not peculiar to the relations 
of the United States with Latin America. But the United 
States has not deprived any Latin American country of 
its independence, its self-government, its language, its 
religion, or its opportunities for self-development. It has ) 
not established preferential tariffs along the Caribbean 
nor secured any trade monopoly. Whatever success 
American business-men have obtained has been won in 
a fair field against their competitors, their only advan- 
tages being proximity and the ability to play upon local 
se'ntiment in Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia and 
upon the favors of the home administration through such 
power as their wealth or their personal position bestows 
upon them — advantages coveted by their competitors and 
used by them to the full, if they have them, whenever 
and wherever possible. In general, too, material and 
social advancement has attended the establishment of 
American business men have obtained has been won in 
improvement in business methods, transportation, sanita- 
tion, and education. The legend of the American business 
ogre in Latin America is a pure figment invented by local 
and foreign competitors and politicians. 



-I 



144 The Monroe Doctrine 

The tradition of American greed for Caribbean terri- 
tory and of the systematic pursuit of a policy of absorp- 
tion, though apparently less imaginary than other super- 
stitions infecting the minds of Latin Americans, loses 
much of its air of solidity and implacability if confronted 
.with the facts. 

There has been no ** master mind" behind our Carib- 
I bean policy. Republican and democratic presidents, par- 
ties, and Secretaries of State have differed in their 
attitude toward Latin America and have expressed their 
varying opinions both verbally and in deeds. 

Under one administration, American citizenship was 
withheld from Porto Rico ; under another, it was granted : 
one administration refused to compensate Colombia for 
the loss of Panama ; another ordered the payment of the 
$25,000,000 involved : under one and the same administra- 
tion, one de facto government of Mexico, that of Huerta, 
was refused recognition and was flatly informed that it 
would never be recognized, and another government, that 
of Carranza, was recognized a few months after Carranza 
had taken the reins into his own hands, though his 
efforts at protecting the lives and property of Americans 
seemed only lukewarm: under President Roosevelt and 
President Taft, the revolutionists of Cuba and Nicaragua 
came into power partly as the result of the attitude of 
our executives ; under President Wilson, the revolutionary 
factions which had overturned the existing governments 
in Cuba and Costa Rica in 1917 were given scant courtesy. 

The purpose may have been the same in all these cases, 
namely, the maintenance of peace and the protection of 
American interests, but the methods were different, the 
results were different, and none of the Latin American 
republics was placed in jeopardy of its independent 
existence. 

PRESIDENT Roosevelt's interpretation of the monroe 

DOCTRINE 

Seventeen years have passed since President Roosevelt, 
in his annual message of 1904, when about to arrange 



The Monroe Doctrine 145 

for the taking over of the custom-houses of the Dominican 
Republic, expressed his interpretation of the polic;^ ®^ 
the United States in unmistakable language : 

Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count 
upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows 
how to act with reasonable efiSeieney and decency in social and 
political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it 
need fear no interference from the United States, Chronic wrong- 
doing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of 
the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ulti- 
mately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the 
Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the United States to the 
Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, 
in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exer- 
cise of an international police power. 

Clearly, the two propositions contained in this declara- 
tion are part and parcel of our Latin American policy, 
but only the second, relating to the possibility of foreign 
intervention, can be said to have any connection with the 
Monroe Doctrine. 

The first concerns itself in truth only with the neigh- 
borly character of the Latin American republics and with 
the desire of the United States to be free from the 
annoyances which unruly neighbors may cause. The 
transition from the express tenets of the Monroe Doctrine 
to that broader line of conduct which we may term the 
Latin American policy of the United States had, of course, 
been in operation and thoroughly understood long before, 
but President Roosevelt by his words made it evident 
that the transition period had terminated and that the 
Latin American policy had supplanted definitively the 
purely European phase outlined in President Monroe's 
message. 

In the interval which has elapsed since President 
Roosevelt's administration, his amendment to the Monroe 
Doctrine to the effect that the United States must "exer- 
cise an international police power" over nations which 
do not show reasonable efficiency and decency in social 
and political matters has been the norm of succeeding 
administrations, even to the inclusion of the sentiment 



146 The Monroe Doctrine 

that "Any country whose people conduct themselves well 
can count upon our hearty friendship." 

It is the Roosevelt amendment which arouses the fear 
and the hostility of the Latin American countries, and 
not now the Monroe Doctrine as such. The extent to 
which action under the revised Latin American policy 
may, in the minds of Latin American political thinkers, 
be carried, is indicated by Dr. Raul de Cardenas, who 
though a Cuban, nevertheless appears to regard the Piatt 
amendment as a guarantee of the independence of Cuba : 

What reason exists, it will be asked, for the interventionist 
policy of the United States to extend to the republics of Cuba, 
Haiti, Santo Domingo, Panama and Nicaragua alone, and not 
to all those of Central America? The reason is obvious: the eases 
in which the United States has exercised a protectorate and su- 
pervision have not arisen systematically. They have been estab- 
lished as the interests of that nation have called for them. In 
the case of the islands of Cuba and Santo Domingo, the North 
American government was affected by their position, inasmuch as 
they are situated off the southern coast of the United States, and 
by their dominating, besides, the routes that lead to the canal; 
and, in respect of Panama and Nicaragua, the need to command 
and control interoceanic communication was what led to the 
assumption of supervision over these countries. The day in 
which any interest, be it what it may, shall counsel the United 
States to subject to her control the other Central American re- 
publics, there is no doubt that she will take steps to that end. 

To this idea the Caribbean republics will undoubtedly 
accommodate themselves in the course of time, however 
trying to truly patriotic souls the position may be. It 
is one of those unfortunate impasses in which small 
nations often find themselves everywhere in the world 
and at every period of the world's history. But there 
is nothing to suggest that it means a loss of independence 
or of local autonomy. The United States has demon- 
strated by her repeated withdrawals from Cuba, her with- 
drawal from Santo Domingo, her abstention from aggres- 
sion in Mexico, her reparations to Colombia, her attitude 
of non-interference with the Central American Union, 
and her entire neglect of opportunities for offensive action 
in the Caribbean region during the European War and 



The Monroe Doctrine 147 

immediately after it, when her army and navy were 
mobilized and Europe was too much occupied with its 
own troubles to offer effective objection, that she has 
not been seeking territorial nor even commercial advan- 
tages, but only that political oversight which all great 
industrial nations deem it necessary to wield in the inter- 
ests of their expanding commerce and investments and 
of international trade in general. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE TRANS-CARIBBEAN 
COUNTRIES 

To the republics south of the Caribbean territory the 
supervisory Latin American policy of the United States 
cannot apply in any real fashion, and the Monroe Doc- 
trine applies only in so far as we cannot view, according 
to President Monroe's words, "any interposition for the 
purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other 
manner their destiny, by any European power in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly 
disposition toward the United States. ' ' 

The "future colonization by any European powers," 
mentioned in the Monroe Doctrine, is not to be feared 
in the sense in which it was feared in 1823. Colonization 
now is synonymous with immigration. Governments do 
not to-day send colonizing expeditions to foreign lands, 
with the intention of placing such colonies under home 
rule. Individuals and groups of individuals settle in 
foreign countries and at once render themselves amenable 
to the laws, customs, and usages of those countries. 

As in the United States, Germans, Italians, Spaniards 
become denationalized shortly after their arrival in Latin 
America, learn the language of their adopted country, 
and if they do not, see to it that their children do, and 
are soon almost indistinguishable from the mass of the 
population. This is particularly true of the Spaniards 
and Italians; and to think of the millions of Spaniards 
or Italians in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile as in 
any way colonies or dependencies of Spain or Italy is 
about as elose to the actual fact as would be that view 



148 The Monroe Doctrine 

of our American Italians or Spaniards who have come 
to stay. 

The German colonies of Latin America, which number 
hundreds of thousands of persons, appear exceptional 
in this respect for they have in many instances kept 
their own language and customs and seem to resist assimi- 
lation. Because of this condition the German govern- 
ment relied on very substantial assistance from Brazilian 
Germans in particular, and may even have had dreams 
of annexing the former vast empire of the Portuguese, or 
at least, of dominating it politically. The event proved 
how vain it is for European governments to reckon on 
more than a sentimental relationship with their transat- 
lantic offshoots en masse, even though they may secure 
some help and depend on individuals for propaganda. 

Brazil, the great hope in Latin America of the Pan 
Germanists, was one of the two Latin American republics 
which took an active part in the war, and that, like Cuba, 
against Germany, It seized the forty-two German vessels 
interned in Brazilian waters, declared war against Ger- 
many by the unanimous vote of its Senate and by a vote 
of 149 to 1 in its Chamber of Deputies — in both of which 
bodies there were delegates of German extraction — sent 
two cruisers and four destroyers to cooperate with the 
British navy, and was represented at the front by aviators, 
physicians, and Red Cross units. 

Here, as throughout Latin America and in the United 
States, whenever a critical division occurs between national 
feeling and the feeling of foreign elements bound by tradi- 
tional ties to the Fatherland, there are no two choices. 

Never, in fact, in the history of Latin America has any 
republic consented to foreign rule or to foreign rulers. 
The eviction of the English from Buenos Aires and the 
execution of Maximilian of Hapsburg in Mexico eloquently 
attest the vitality of the national spirit. Nor has any 
foreign government ever yet been able to establish in the 
Latin American republics a number of settlers sufficient 
to submerge the national population. The two million or 
ra.ore Italians of Argentina have easily been swallowed 



The Monroe Doctrine 149 

up by the existing population in whatever locality they 
have settled, partly because they entered the country dur- 
ing a long course of years, and not all at once, and partly 
because they soon became Argentinians themselves. Pro- 
fessor Coolidge's prediction with regard to the Germans 
of Brazil, made in 1908, has been borne out to the letter, 
in spite of the conditions precipitated by the European 
War: 

If matters go on quietly, as they are doing at present, it ap- 
pears probable that, in spite of the influence of consuls and 
merchants, of teachers and preachers and patriotic literature 
from the Fatherland, sooner or later here too the Germans will 
end by being lost in the surrounding population. 

If Latin America is unalterably opposed to foreign rule, 
whether it be European or North American, and if the 
possibility of foreign colonization in the old meaning is 
practically nil, why the unending discussion of the Monroe 
Doctrine with regard to Latin America as a whole, and 
why the treatment of it as an imminent danger and a 
loathsome fetter by Argentinians, Chileans, Bolivians, 
Peruvians ? 

In order to comprehend the real attitude of the non- 
Caribbean South American republics toward the Monroe 
Doctrine or toward what has been denominated in this 
chapter the Latin American policy of the United States, 
it is necessary to distinguish between public feeling and 
the feeling of trained thinkers or political experts. 

Public feeling, as represented by the "man on the 
street," the press, demagogues, and mobs is likely, as in 
all countries, to be highly sensitive, ultra nationalistic, 
and unconcerned with the inner philosophy of isolated 
facts or happenings, though it should be said to the credit 
of the highest type of Latin American journalism, such as 
is displayed in La Prensa and La Nacion of Argentina, 
El Mercurio of Chile, and O Jornal do Commercio of 
Brazil, that it is far superior to this description and not 
below the sound, well-reasoned, and self-controlled jour- 
nalism of the United States, England, or France. 

To the general public of Latin America, the Latin Amer- 



150 The Monroe Doctrine 

iean policy of the United States seems arrogant, inter- 
meddling, oppressive, and insulting, and to this public 
are addressed the oratorical fireworks of professional poli- 
ticians and sensational newspapers. Intellectually, this 
section of society is of minor importance, but, since its 
cumulative power is so great and since its sentiments are 
most quickly and spontaneously converted into action, its 
verdicts can never be overlooked, no matter how extrava- 
gant they may be. Usually, too, by some process which 
requires psychological analysis, its intuitions are sane, 
especially in matters that affect national integrity. Most 
of the protests which we hear with regard to our Latin 
American policy emanate from the general Latin American 
public : and who shall say that its views are less wise than 
those of the general public of the United States, which 
often "demands" things on sentimental rather than on 
national grounds? 

On the other hand, to the intellectual elite of Latin 
America, our Latin American policy appears to contain 
much that is good and noble as well as much that is bad 
and selfish. Dr. Alejandro Alvarez of Chile, docteur en 
droit de la Faculte de Paris, counselor to the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs of Chile, a member of the Hague Court 
of Arbitration, and the author of one of the most brilliant 
and erudite volumes on international law entitled Le Droit 
International AmSricain (Paris, 1910) may be selected as 
the spokesman for the educated opinion of Latin America 
respecting the Latin American policy of the United States. 

According to Dr. Alvarez, the Monroe Doctrine repre- 
sents the will and the interests of the entire Western 
Hemisphere, and not merely of the United States. By 
a combination of circumstances, it fell to the lot of the 
United States to enunciate its principles, but those princi- 
ples would sooner or later have been declared in some 
other part of the American continents if the United States 
had not taken the lead. 



The Monroe Doctrine 151 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE IN REALITY A PAN AMERICAN 
DOCTRINE 

AH the American republics are in accord as to the neces- 
sity of maintaining the essential articles of the Monroe 
Doctrine, and "although the United States has thus far 
been its sole defender, there could now be found Latin 
American States powerful enough to maintain it if the 
United States should refuse to do so." The Monroe Doe- 
trine is, then, not simply a North American doctrine: it 
is, in so far as President Monroe's declaration is concerned, 
an all- American pronouncement, and the Three Americas 
would vigorously protest any violation of its precepts. 

Nothing could be more logical than Dr. Alvarez's state- 
ment of the cordial acceptance by Latin America of Presi- 
dent Monroe's basic principles. Whatever misunderstand- 
ing has existed has been due to our belief that some of 
the Latin American republics would not have been above 
selling themselves to European powers, or would not have 
been intelligent enough to withstand the blandishments 
or the machinations of foreign governments. Cases in 
point are the offer of the crown of Mexico to Maximilian 
by a deputation of Mexicans in 1863, and the occasional 
reports that Mexico and one or two other republics seemed 
willing to relinquish extensive public rights to Japanese 
companies which had the support of the Japanese Gov- 
ernment. 

The entire history of Latin America, nevertheless, dis- 
proves that the countries as a whole were in sympathy with 
the treachery of a few of their leaders ; and the vengeance 
which the Mexican people took on Maximilian and his 
adherents may weU have served as a warning to other 
ambitious or misguided European princes. Latin America 
has had a few Benedict Arnolds, but they have never 
escaped punishment from an incensed people as strongly 
intrenched in love of country as any nation of the world. 
The surest road to popularity in Latin America has been 
the course taken by Francia, Artigas, Eosas, Castro, 
Carranza, who defied foreign encroachment and consoli- 



152 The Monroe Doctrine 

dated public sentiment by the mere fact that they stood 
forth as champions of the national dignity. 

With the original Monroe Doctrine per se, Latin Amer- 
icans of the stamp of Dr. Alvarez have no quarrel. Their 
criticism is directed almost exclusively against the con- 
ceptions of imperialism and hegemony which have grown 
out of the exercise of the Monroe Doctrine and of the 
increase in population, wealth, and power of the United 
States. 

The imperialistic aims of the United States have noth- 
ing to do with the Monroe Doctrine. They are a conse- 
quence of the historical and economic development of the 
country, and gave visible signs of their presence long be- 
fore the Spanish-American War of 1898. 

The annexation of Texas in 1845, the attitude of Presi- 
dent Poll? with regard to the boundaries of Oregon in 
1845 and the project for the annexation of Yucatan in 
1848, President Buchanan's plan for the annexation of 
the northern part of Mexico, President Grant's project 
for the annexation of Santo Domingo in 1870 are all evi- 
dence of the imperialistic policy of the United States, and 
bear no relation to the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, 
though these principles were invoked as a justification in 
each case. 

It is necessary [observes Dr. Alvarez,] to call attention to the 
fact that the United States has often exercised its imperialistic 
policy by means of armed force. From 1836 to 1861, it thus 
intervened twenty-five different times, not only in America, but 
also in Asia, notably in China and Japan. These interventions 
were sometimes motivated by the desire for territorial expansion, 
and sometimes by the desire for commercial development. They 
were so numerous, particularly between 1850 and 1860, that it was 
possible to say then that they constituted the ordinary course of 
action of American diplomacy. These military expeditions pre- 
sent also the peculiarity of having taken place without a declara- 
tion of war, except those between 1775 and 1779 and between 
1803 and 1804, and except the war against England from 1812 
to 1814, the war against Mexico in 1846, and the war against 
Spain in 1898. 

That this imperialistic tendency might give rise to fears 
on the part of the non-Caribbean territories of Latin 



The Monroe Doctrine 153 

America is a natural assumption. Nevertheless, intelligent 
observers in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil entertain 
no such fears for their own countries. They are fully 
convinced that too great a distance separates them from 
the United States, that the immediate political interests 
of the United States touch them only slightly — an idea 
implicitly corroborated by Professor John H. Latane 's The 
United States and Latin America, which has surprisingly 
little to say about the political relations between the United 
States and the non-Caribbean territory of Latin America 
— ^that they are too well established for the United States 
to be able to allege the necessity of applying to them the 
Monroe Doctrine in its various ramifications, and that too 
many and too large European factors are interwoven in 
their economic and social fabric to permit the United 
States to attempt to rend it. 

What they do protest against is the insistence of the 
United States in extending its hegemonic aspirations south 
of the Caribbean region. Its purpose in doing so is 
undoubtedly a laudable one in many respects. Certain 
weak republics, relying on the protection given them by 
the true Monroe Doctrine, may wish to relax their inter- 
national obligations, and feel that they can conduct them- 
selves with impunity toward their creditors unless there 
is some power above them to coerce them into keeping 
their contracts inviolate. One republic may desire to cross 
the boundary of its neighbor with armed forces. Chile 
and Peru, because of their outstanding dispute over the 
possession of Tacna and Arica, may endanger the peace 
of the entire continent of South America and even of all 
Latin America if permitted to have their own way. 

"Who," the United States inquires, in effect, *'is going 
to protect the still impotent Latin American republics 
against themselves, one another, and foreign nations if not 
the United States, which has been their traditional friend 
and is strong enough to bring antagonists to terms? The 
vast territories of Latin America have incited attack from 
abroad on several occasions. The possible consequences of 
recourse to armed intervention with the object of collect- 




154 The Monroe Doctrine 

ing public debts have already led to the formulation of 
the Drago Doctrine by Dr. Drago of Argentina, and the 
risks attendant on civil wars in Latin America have given 
rise to the Tobar Doctrine, formulated by Dr. Tobar of 
Ecuador, which seeks to bind the Latin American republics 
against recognizing any government originating in a revo- 
lution. Who is to gee to it that European arbitrators, 
whom Latin American republics prefer to choose, do not 
use to their own advantage the powers conferred upon 
them ? Who, if not the United States, can prevent revolu- 
^tionary parties, absorbed in their desire to overthrow the 
existing government, from surrendering vital rights to 
predatory foreign interests or nations in Europe or Asia? 
Has not the United States been obliged at times to investi- 
gate the terms under which certain concessions have been 
made to foreign companies, such as the recent arrangement 
between the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of 
London and Peru — whereby that concern was granted the 
privilege of operating the wireless, postal, and telegraphic 
services of the republic for a period of twenty-five years 
— in order that a monopoly prejudicial to international 
trade and comity might not be established?" 

THE TRANS-CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES ABLE TO SOLVE THEIR OWN 
POLITICAL PROBLEMS 

The answer of the republics of the non-Caribbean region 
K)f Latin America is simple. They must guard their in- 
erests to the same extent that the United States wishes 
to guard its own interests. They do not relish any tutelage 
imposed upon them without their consent. They have not 
stood still while the rest of the world has moved forward. 
They are free agents, and entitled to take any political, 
social, or economic measures which they deem suitable. 
Thare is no such connection between them and the United 
States as there is between the Caribbean republics and 
the United States. They have developed their institutions 
independently of any suggestion from the United States, 
and have maintained dignified relations with the rest of 
the world through their own foresight and power of adap- 



The Monroe Doctrine 155 

tation. Among themselves, as nations, they have preserved 
the peace in a way that puts European international rela- 
tions to shame, for in the hundred years since their inde- 
pendence, they have fought only two international wars, 
namely, the war of Paraguay against Brazil, Uruguay, and 
Argentina (1865—1870) and the war of Chile against 
Bolivia and Peru (1879-1884). They have in most cases 
settled their own troubles. They have found the solution 
for most of their difficulties with one another through the 
medium of arbitration, and have actually abided by the 
decisions rendered by arbitral bodies. The boundary liti- 
gation between Colombia and Costa Rica was terminated 
by the arbitral decision of the French Republic in 1900: 
President Cleveland's decision in 1895 regarding contested 
points between Argentina and Brazil relative to the Terri- 
tory of Misiones, favorable to Brazil, was accepted by 
both sides: the conflict between Argentina and Chile con- 
cerning the frontier between the two countries was brought 
to an end by the decision of His Britannic Majesty in 
1902: the contested Puna region of Atacama, which 
aroused great feeling between Chile and Argentina, was 
awarded almost in its entirety to Argentina by a commis- 
sion composed of a Chilean representative, an Argentine 
representative, and the United States minister to 
Argentina. 

Differences not compounded by arbitration have been 
settled by voluntary agreements among the Latin American 
republics themselves. Thus, Bolivia and Brazil in 1903 
concluded the Treaty of Petropolis by which the Territory 
of Acre, which had been leased to the Bolivian Syndicate, 
a United States corporation, was ceded to Brazil on the 
payment of two million pounds sterling to Bolivia, with 
the understanding that this sum should be expended in 
the construction of means of transportation and communi- 
cation between the two countries. Similarly, the pact of 
1902 between Argentina and Chile on the limitation of 
naval armaments was voluntarily entered into, and termi- 
nated a disastrous rivalry — and that momentous pact, 
anticipating by a score of years the world conference on 



156 The Monroe Doctrine 

the limitation of naval armaments (1921) at "Washington, 
cannot fail to raise the two republics in question in foreign 
public esteem as far-sighted nations capable of pointing 
the way to international improvement to other larger 
nations usually considered so superior in political sagacity. 

Reviewing the Monroe Doctrine or the Latin American 
policy of the United States in its triple aspect of protec- 
tion, imperialism, and hegemony from any just angle it 
is difficult, indeed, to see where, in its relation to the 
non-Caribbean countries of Latin America, it has a leg 
to stand upon. 

It is not necessary to the comfort or well-being of the 
United States, it is not now necessary as a "hand held 
up in warning," in President Wilson's words, to European 
powers, and it is not necessary to the peace and progress 
of trans-Caribbean Latin America. 

Even from the point of view of the exercise of hegemony, 
it represents a needless assumption and is inimical to true 
Pan Americanism. The only satisfactory hegemony must 
come from within Latin America itself, and the principal 
factor in such hegemony already exists in the A.B.C. 
alliance (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) of South America. 

These three nations [Senor F. Garcia Calderon reminds us], 
wealthy, military powers, situated in distinct zones, are seeking 
confederation ; their ambition is to exercise in America a tutelage 
which they consider indispensable. — The statesmen of Buenos- 
Ayres, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago are labouring to effect the 
realisation of an alliance between the three most highly civilised 
and organised and most advanced nations of the continent. Once 
this union is accomplished, to the indisputable influence of the 
United States will be added the moderative influence of the three 
great States of the South, and the equilibrium between Latins 
and Anglo-Saxons would be its immediate result. 

The future will undoubtedly witness the growth of the 
A.B.C. alliance as the spokesman for Latin America and 
an increased tendency on the part of Latin American 
countries to seek its good offices rather than to have re- 
course to European governments or to the government df 
the United States. 



The Monroe Doctrine 157 



BROADENING OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

The political wisdom manifested in 1914 in the accep- 
tance by the United States of the cooperation of the A.B.C. 
powers for the solution of the Mexican conflict between 
Victoriano Huerta and the United States cannot but merit 
the approval of all true friends of Latin America and 
inspires the hope that a significant precedent has been 
set for the treatment of Latin American problems affect- 
ing the United States. Such cooperation should at least 
be invoked in those questions arising south of the Carib- 
bean region in which we may be vitally interested. 

Many a public measure adopted to meet a special situa- 
tion at a particular moment has been retained long after 
it has outlived its usefulness, principally because no way 
has been discovered of dropping it in graceful and unosten- 
tatious fashion. The Monroe Doctrine is particularly hard 
to drop in this manner on account of its age, the world- 
wide comment which it has aroused for nearly a hundred 
years, and the tenacious belief of many sincere Americans 
in its efficacy. Even those who, like Professor Bingham, 
are most desirous of seeing it done away with would have 
difficulty in suggesting a neat and swift method for apply- 
ing the coup de grace. 

Nonetheless, it is possible to mitigate the real evils caused 
us in Latin America nearly every four years at least, and 
Professor Bingham has indicated, in an address entitled 
"Should We Abandon the Monroe Doctrine?" and de- 
livered at Clark University in 1913, the most simple 
immediate steps to be taken : 

Finally, let us stop using the words "Monroe Doctrine." It 
would be well if a formal resolution of Congress could be passed, 
but since Congress has never formally approved of the Monroe 
Doctrine in so many words, it is probable that it would be suflB- 
cient if our great parties in their next platforms should avoid 
the repetition of those phrases supporting the doctrine which 
have been customary for so many years. 



CHAPTER VII 
INTERNATIONAL RAPPROCHEMENT 

The logical alternative to the hegemony of the United 
States is a broad Pan Americanism which shall allow full 
play to the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon civilizations in the 
New World and at the same time draw them together 
through the bonds of social, economic, and intellectual 
interests. 

Much has been accomplished in that direction through 
many agencies, among which may be noted the following: 
the visits of Secretaries of State Root, Knox, and Colby 
to Latin America; President Roosevelt's expedition to 
Brazil; the interchange of professors between Chile and 
Brazil and the United States; the numerous congresses 
held in Washington, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires; the 
labors of the Pan American Union; the publication of 
numerous periodicals in this country presenting the Latin 
American republics in a favorable light; the appearance 
of excellent studies of Latin American literature; the 
Spanish edition of the Journal of the American Medical 
Association; the special page devoted to Latin America 
in several of our newspapers ; the visits of Latin American 
statesmen and editors to our cities ; our arbitration treaties 
with practically all the Latin American countries; the 
groups of Latin American students attending our schools 
and universities ; the unveiling of the statue of Bolivar in 
Central Park, New York, of the statue of Washington in 
Caracas, Venezuela, and of the portrait of Washington 
in Buenos Aires; the presentation of the portrait of the 
Liberator by the Venezuelan Government to the town of 
Bolivar, Missouri; the establishment of courses in Latin 
American history, literature, and current affairs in our 
universities; and the efforts of scores gf individuals an(3 

158 



International Rapprochement 159 

associations desirous of bringing about a real rapproche- 
ment between the United States and Latin America. 

Most of these advances, as is apparent, have come from 
the United States: and many European observers have 
drawn the conclusion that they but thinly veil aggressive 
political and commercial aims. However, leaving aside the 
ultimate purpose of Pan Americanism from our standpoint, 
it is only just that we should take the first steps and the 
greater number of steps toward some sort of friendly 
association. For one thing, we have the Monroe Doctrine 
and its unfavorable interpretation and our supervision of 
several Latin American countries to live down, and for 
another, common courtesy demands that we should go more 
than half-way in endeavors toward closer friendship with 
still undeveloped, but proud republics. 

The chief obstacles which stand in the way of Pan Amer- 
icanism are not, as most writers have sought to make out, 
the divergence in temperament and traditions between the 
Latin American peoples and the people of the United States, 
nor the considerable distance between the United States 
and the southern half of the neighboring continent, nor 
the difference in culture. None of these causes has pre- 
vented a high degree of comity between England and 
Japan or between the United States and France. The real 
obstacles are suspicion of our motives on the part of Latin 
America, political sabotage by European officials, writers, 
newspapers, and commercial interests, and indifference 
among all but a limited group of Americans. 

The first of these causes has been dealt with in the pre- 
ceding chapter and needs no further discussion here. 

FOREIGN ANTAGONISM TO PAN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

By the second is meant the whole paraphernalia of 
jealousies, conflicting interests, and public and private fear 
of the loss of prestige or profit now enjoyed. It is inevi- 
table that our progress in Latin America should put the 
influential European countries on the defensive and that 
they should try, by all the devices that are fair in either 



160 International Rapprochement 

love or war, to belittle the attentions and distort the in- 
tentions of the United States toward Latin America. The 
tactics may not be open and above-board — such tactics in 
such cases usually are not — but they operate none the less 
persistently. Already in 1826, on the occasion of the 
earliest Pan American conference of all, initiated by 
Bolivar, the British Foreign Secretary, George Canning, 
whose boast it was that he "called the New World into 
existence to redress the balance of the Old," declared, as 
Professor Latane shows, in private instructions to the 
special British envoy who was to place himself in com- 
munication with the delegates to the Panama Congress, 
that 

Any project for putting the U. S. of North America at the 
head of an American Confederacy, as against Europe, would 
be highly displeasing to your Government. It would be felt 
as an ill return for the service which has been rendered to those 
States, and the dangers which have been averted from them, by 
the countenance and friendship, and public declarations of Great 
Britain; and it would probably, at no distant period, endanger 
the peace both of America and of Europe. 

The third reason, which seems to contradict the state- 
ment at the beginning of this chapter of the multifarious 
means taken in the United States to bring about Pan 
Americanism, requires some explanation. 

Much has, indeed, been done in the United States during 
the past few years to strengthen the bonds of friendly in- 
terest with Latin America, but it has been done mainly 
through government patronage, through the universities, 
through small bodies of social and scientific students, and 
through some of the Women's Clubs. The larger public 
still knows very little about Latin America. It will con- 
tinue to know little until Latin America is put in the 
public schools, until the social treatment accorded Amer- 
ican students in foreign countries is accorded Latin 
American students in our country, until eminent Latin 
American men and women and noteworthy Latin American 
works are recognized and appreciated here, until our news- 
papers devote as much attention to Latin American affairs 



International Rapprochement 161 

as to European or Asiatic affairs and have as good a Latin 
American cable service as their present European or Japa- 
nese service, and until the Spanish or Portuguese taught 
with higher aims than the purely commonplace one of 
in our schools with reference to Latin America is taught 
enabling our young men to sell goods to Latin America 
or to carry on Latin American commercial correspondence. 

' ' Does such a programme seem exacting or extravagant ? ' ' 
the Latin American may ask. ''If it does, then the situa- 
tion is as we have thought it. You are not really anxious 
to know us, or to be on close terms with us, or to be able 
to appreciate us. You are really not interested in us, but 
only in those things belonging to us which you can use to 
your own advantage." 

Judged impartially, this retort would seem the only 
logical answer to our protestations of friendship backed by 
nothing stronger than scholarly conferences or commercial 
advertising of Latin America. Intimacy between peoples 
is won either by stressing the traditional ties which bind 
them — and these ties we have not with Latin America — 
or by the development of intelligent friendship. We have 
found it possible on various occasions, through our schools 
and our newspapers, to arouse in a short time an extraor- 
dinary amount of sympathy among the mass of our 
people for particular nations, such as the French. The 
cultivation of Latin American friendship is readily pos- 
sible through the same agencies. 

All this is essential if we are proposing a genuine Pan 
American solidarity. It is the more necessary, since we 
must start at the very bottom and build up about Latin 
America that common knowledge which every schoolboy 
has about Greece and Rome, England and France. In the 
past, most Americans became fairly familiar with certain 
phases of Latin American civilization and romance through 
the labors of one man — Prescott, the American historian 
of the Incas and the Aztecs. To Prescott belongs the title 
of the greatest teacher in this country of Latin American 
civilization and history. But Prescott is no longer read 
as widely as a generation or two ago, and, besides, it i§ 



162 International Rapprochement 

not so much in primitive Latin America as in the whole 
extent of Latin American evolution down to our own days 
that we are, or should be, interested. 

What material is there not available for writers of genius 
or for those with a popular style in the historical and 
romantic works of Spanish American and Spanish authors, 
in the folk-lore of Ricardo Palma of Peru and Manuel 
Fernandez Juncos of Porto Rico, in the mythology and 
folk-lore of Professor Hartley Burr Alexander's Latin 
American Mythology, in the lives of Latin American heroes 
as told in Professor William Spenee Robertson's Rise of 
the Spanish- American Republics, in the accurate and 
clearly arranged data in the Encyclopedia of Latin 
America edited by Mr. Marrion Wilcox and Mr. George 
Edwin Rines, in the varied and interesting narratives and 
descriptions of the Pan American Bulletin! 

Truly, the American schoolboy is kept in ignorance of 
a whole world which should be as important to him as 
Greece, Rome, Assyria, or France! 

But perhaps such broad knowledge of Latin America 
and such close connection with its peoples is more than 
we want. Perhaps, after all, we are satisfied with the same 
kind of understanding that characterizes our relations with 
China or Japan. 

In that case, we are doing all that is humanly possible : 
and the Pan American diplomatic conferences initiated by 
Secretary Blaine in 1881, and continued in the conferences 
of 1889, 1901-2, 1906, 1910, the Pan American scientific 
congresses held in 1908 and 1916, the Pan American finan- 
cial conferences of 1915 and 1920, the general meeting 
of the International High Commission in 1916, and the 
sessions of the American Institute of International Law 
in 1916, some of which have taken place in Washington 
and the rest in the City of Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos 
Aires, together with such subsidiary gatherings as the Pan 
American Child Welfare Congresses held at Buenos Aires 
in 1916 and at Montevideo in 1919, are bringing together 
our leaders in politics, finance, sanitation, law, education, 



International Rapprochement 163 

and social welfare and through them slowly disseminating 
a proper appreciation of Latin America. 

Judging, however, from the expressions of opinion by 
thoughtful Americans and Latin Americans, diplomatic 
and intellectual relations will never be able to achieve Pan 
American solidarity in its best and most lasting form until 
bonds of sympathetic understanding have been created 
among the peoples themselves — bonds similar to those which 
subsist between the United States and Great Britain or 
France in spite of wide temperamental differences and 
occasional friction. Those bonds are not the work of 
diplomatists or financiers — ^who, moreover, often jeopard- 
ize those already in existence — but of something much 
subtler which emanates from the mass of the people. 

Notwithstanding the effort of many European writers 
to persuade themselves and their constituencies that the 
United States and Latin America are farther apart in 
every way than Latin America and Europe, and that all 
the methods invoked to remove the distance partake of 
artificial stimulation, something like an American con- 
sciousness and a sense of confraternity does, after all, 
animate the republics in the Western Hemisphere. The 
marked similarity in history, constitutions, freedom from 
the caste system, extent of territory and consequent 
emphasis on extensive rather than intensive treatment in 
agriculture and commerce, vast landscapes and illimitable 
skies, early pioneering experience, long suspicion of 
Europe, and New World ambitions has, in reality, given 
the American nations a homogeneity which is just as 
effective as the blood and traditions inherited from Europe 
— and possibly, in this day and age, more so. 

With reason does Sarmiento's Facundo, treating of early 
Argentina, savor strongly of the life on our great western 
plains before they became the populous states of to-day, 
and with reason does the Honorable Charles H. Sherrill, 
our Minister to Argentina from 1909 to 1911, speak of 
"subtly Americanizing surroundings" in, the following 
lively parallel^ 



164 International Rapprochement 

I am an enthusiastic Pan-American, and an earnest believer 
in the high ideals of Pan-Americanism, and one of those ideals 
is respect for the viewpoint of our fellow Americans. The 
peoples of our hemisphere have been allowed to develop 
naturally in an atmosphere of liberty and of ample oppor- 
tunity, amid surroundings that in Europe the trammels of an 
older civilization would have rendered either difficult or im- 
possible. This very freedom of the Americas has worked 
strange and radical changes in the European races that came 
to it and have become Americanized by its influence. It has 
accelerated the mentality of the Anglo-Saxon of North 
America, and it has steadied and broadened the vitality and 
energy of the Latin of South America, and it is insensibly 
bringing them nearer together. An interesting ethnological 
parallel could be drawn between the change effected in an 
Irishman by moving him from Ireland to New York, and that 
in a Spanish emigrant before he leaves his home and after 
he arrives in the subtly Americanizing surroundings of Buenos 
Aires. If it isn't the new environment that works the trans- 
formation, what is it? — and if the same effect is produced 
at points six thousand miles apart, isn't it fair to call that 
effect Pan-American! . . . We hear much of the steadiness 
and self-control of the Anglo-Saxon, and of the importance 
that lends to his opinions — when I was in Buenos Aires an 
anarchist bomb exploded in the great opera house in the midst 
of an audience of Pan-American Latins. What happened? 
First, ask yourself what would have happened if a bomb had 
exploded in the Metropolitan Opera House among us Anglo- 
Saxons; — I fear that all of us who are honest minded will 
reluctantly agree as to the probable results. What happened 
in Buenos Aires? A remarkable scene, which is a glory to 
Argentine citizenship. No tumult, no undue excitement. The 
injured were removed while the orchestra played the national 
anthem. Announcement was made from the stage that the 
performance was discontinued, and the audience filed quietly 
out. If you had been there you would have been as proud 
of those people as I was — as proud of their poise, and of their 
reserve strength of character, and furthermore as respectful 
of their viewpoint, as the most enthusiastic believer in the 
future of our hemisphere could wish, 

Eapproehement, vrhether called Pan Americanism or by 
any other name denoting the close association of the Amer- 
ican peoples, does not appear visionary nor uncongenial 
when one has seen a section of Latin American society in 
circumstances like those described by Mr. Sherrill: nor 
does it appear so to Americans who have lived day in and 



International Rapprochement 165 

day out in Latin American circles comparable to his own 
at home. Naturally, rapproachement may seem difficult 
to educated Americans who visit Latin America hastily 
and judge whole nations by the laborers in the mines, in 
the cane-fields, or on the docks. 

RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPEAN 
LATIN COUNTRIES 

Other countries, too, are seeking a closer rapprochement 
with Latin America by the same means employed by the 
United States, but with the mitial advantage of that senti- 
mental and racial sympathy which is denied us. Our rela- 
tions are at present limited to the intellectual and com- 
mercial spheres, whereas a country like Spain can count 
on the benefits of identity in traditions, customs, manners, 
and social intimacy. As Spain progresses along the path 
of modern evolution, her stake in Latin America is sure 
to grow. The days of tension have disappeared, and Spain 
appeals once more to the Latin American heart as the 
glorious mother-country, often mistaken in the past, but 
seeking to atone in the present for her errors. 

Remarkable efforts are therefore being made by Spanish 
statesmen and intellectual and social leaders to gain an 
increasing place in the sun that shines on Latin America. 
Treaties of arbitration have been concluded between Spain 
and her former colonies : sociological, economic, and jurid- 
ical congresses have united Spanish and Latin American 
thinkers at frequent intervals : Latin Americans are elected 
to positions of honor in Spanish societies and academies: 
a tone of benevolence characterizes the Spanish criticism 
of Latin American literature and arts : the Infanta Isabel 
visited Argentina and Chile on the occasion of the cen- 
tennial anniversary of their independence and was 
accorded triumphal ovations: the King of Spain has for 
some time been planning a tour to South America: and 
Spanish-American social and cultural centers are being 
established in various Spanish cities to foment a spirit 
of fraternal cordiality. 

This species of Hispanic union should eventually lead 



166 International Rapprochement 

to the sentimental and, possibly, artistic preponderance of 
Spain in Latin America, and need not be looked at askance 
by the United States so long as a sense of fair play and 
truth, often absent in the Spanish discussions of the atti- 
tude of the United States toward Latin America, is pre- 
served by Spanish publicists. It should prove complemen- 
tary in a valuable way to the present intellectual and 
artistic preponderance wielded by France and to the com- 
mercial and political preponderance exercised by the 
United States and Great Britain. To Spain it may ulti- 
mately mean economic salvation: and to Latin America, 
in conjunction with the other influences mentioned, an 
ethnic renovation in which the fundamental traits of an 
old civilization are allied to the more vigorous character- 
istics of a technological age. 

The significant fact is that while modern conditions are 
driving Latin America farther and farther away from the 
world in which the mother-country still exists, the attrac- 
tion of blood, or even more truly, of sentimental re- 
membrance is drawing it closer to Spain than it has ever 
been in the past. It is probable, also, that the antagonistic 
Spanish and conservative elements in the Latin American 
population are using the sentimental appeal as a counter- 
poise to the feelings of the more progressive younger gen- 
eration, which cannot resist the lure of the energy, prompt- 
ness, decisiveness, and the less traditional methods and 
thought of the United States. 

RAPPROCHEMENT AMONG THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES 
THEMSELVES 

International rapprochement, however, is not restricted 
to the creation of bonds of interest between Latin America 
and the United States, Spain, France, or the rest of the 
outside world, but is at this moment exceedingly active 
among the Latin American republics themselves. Its effects 
are visible in the magnanimous utterance (August, 1921) 
of President Tamayo of Ecuador concerning the boundary 
dispute between his country and Peru: "I believe that 
by the exercise of good will, serene judgment, and a spirit 



International Rapprochement 167 

of sincere Americanism an equitable and reciprocally bene- 
ficial arrangement can be effected, particularly since the 
prosperity of one of the countries will tend to contribute 
to the progress of the other"; in the peaceful measures 
recently taken to settle questions relating to frontiers and 
doubtful territory between Bolivia and Paraguay and be- 
tween Uruguay and Brazil; in Chile's support of the 
Argentine amendments before the League of Nations, 
followed by expressions of sympathy from nearly all the 
Latin American republics; in the rules adopted by the 
A.B.C. Treaty, which was signed at Buenos Aires on May 
25, 1915, "for proceeding to facilitate the friendly solution 
of questions that were formerly excluded from arbitra- 
tion"; and in the visit of the Argentine battleship 
Sarmiento to Mexico during the present year (1921), which 
gave rise to expressions of cordial friendship. 

Above all, the resurrection of the idea of free trade 
among the Latin American republics, the feeling that the 
Confederation of Greater Colombia may some day be re- 
vived, and the actual reestablishment of the Central 
American Union demonstrate that a Latin American con- 
sciousness is gradually developing and that the separatism 
of the past, which has been concerned primarily with the 
demarcation of nationalistic lines, is being modified by the 
necessity of cohesion forced on Latin America by its 
geographical position and by its treatment abroad as one 
large family. It almost inevitably follows, when foreign 
countries view Latin America as a unit rather than as 
separate countries, that a sense of unity, originally absent, 
will finally make itself felt. 

The interchange of products, as a writer in the South 
'American shows, is still in an embryonic state in Latin 
America. 

With some exceptions, such as Peruvian sugar to Chile, 
Paraguayan tea to Argentina, Brazihan coffee and bananas to 
Argentina and some Argentine wheat to Brazil, there is prac- 
tically no interchange of produce between them. The excellent 
Chilean wine and coal are never found in other South Ameri- 
can countries; Argentine meat was never eaten in Brazil, even 
in the days before the war when fresh Brazilian meat was 



168 International Rapprochement 

very bad; and even to-day the mutton consumed in Rio de 
Janeiro comes from New Zealand in preference to Punta 
Arenas. Ecuador sells no cacao or Panama hats to her neigh- 
bors, Brazil no rubber, and the emeralds of Colombia find 
their way to Buenos Aires only via London or Paris. 

FREE TRADE AND RAPPROCHEMENT 

High tariffs for revenue and the influence of the pro- 
prietors of certain large industries in the various countries 
have maintained a situation due in part, no doubt, to the 
ancient Spanish monopolistic system. But the greater ease 
with which many of the products could be sold at the sea- 
board to foreign nations, the active demand of these nations 
for the great staples, and the control of many of the latter 
by foreign companies were likewise determining factors in 
retarding the interchange of commodities among the Latin 
American republics. To these causes must also be added 
the home demand for the manufactured articles of Europe 
and the United States. 

The notion of free trade was, nevertheless, broached as 
early as 1856, and was stipulated in the treaty of that 
year between Argentina and Chile. Kevived recently by 
Statesmen, businessmen, and newspapers, and especially by 
La Prensa of Buenos Aires, the movement for free trade, 
or at least, for freer trade appears to be gaining ground 
not only in southern but in northern Latin America as 
well. A removal of the intolerable imposts which stifle 
inter-American trade and keep the cost of living high 
would unquestionably prove an economic advantage and 
might for some republics, as Mr. Roger Babson predicts 
for Panama, result in cities rivaling the noteworthy com- 
mercial centers of Europe or the United States. More 
than that, it would prove a blessing to the Latin American 
republics which have entered the industrial era. 

But far superior to all other considerations is the effect 
which it would have in stimulating Latin American inter- 
national unity and strength. So long as Latin America 
is dependent on foreign markets for the disposal of its 
agricultural and mineral wealth and for the manufactured 
goods which it consumes, just so long will it be subject 



International Rapprochement 169 

to the preponderance of one foreign nation or another, and 
just so long will its internal politics be determined largely 
from the outside. Let it, however, rely generously on its 
own capacity for attending to its own wants — its abstention 
from doing so having proved thus far the great reason 
for its abnormally extensive commerce with Europe and 
the United States — and closer and more friendly relations 
follow among its members, accompanied by an added sense 
of dignity and independence. 

If the career of other countries can be taken as an index, 
the Latin American republics must in the near future 
embark on that general reciprocal exchange of products 
which the construction of interstate railroads, automobile 
highways, telegraph lines, and coastal vessels, now under 
way, is sure to stimulate to a high pitch. Already the cry 
"Latin America for Latin Americans" has been raised in 
some quarters, and the corollary, "Latin American prod- 
ucts for Latin Americans," may be expected to become a 
watchword of economic and political unification — and a 
warning to the outside world. 

POLITICAL CONFEDERATION 

The most direct means of unification, namely, political 
confederation, will, however, continue to appeal to a fair 
share of Latin Americans as the ultimate goal to be sought. 
Whether or not the confederation of all Latin America 
or of some of the republics lying in the same geographical 
zone is possible or even desirable is a debatable question. 
The history of the Central American Confederation, which 
has been revived as the Central American Union, or, as 
it is entitled in the covenant adopted by Guatemala, 
Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica on January 19, 1921, 
the Federation of Central America, is illuminating as to 
both the ideals professed and the results thus far observ- 
able. 

The ideals are those held by Bolivar when, in 1826, 
he convoked at Panama the first congress of the nations 
of the New World for the purpose of establishing a new 
"equilibrium of the universe" to offset the political 



170 International Rapprochement 

equilibrium maintained by Europe. But already in 1814 
the thought was dear to him, and the place of meeting for 
the nations had been determined upon by him: 

How beautiful it would be if the isthmus of Panama were 
for us what the isthmus of Corinth was for the Greeks ! Would 
that we might have some day the good fortune to inaugurate 
there an august congress of the representatives of the re- 
publics, kingdoms and empires, to treat of and to discuss the 
high concerns of peace and war, with the nations of the other 
parts of the world! A corporation of this kind might come 
into being in some happy period of our regeneration. 

Bolivar's generous hope was frustrated, though it has 
in our days appeared elsewhere, in the League of Nations, 
in the Conference for the Limitation of Naval Armaments, 
and in President Harding's project for an Association of 
Nations. The failure of the Panama Congress was due 
in part to the political conditions existing in some of the 
Latin American republics and to the inability of some of 
them to send delegates to the Isthmus. In part, also, the 
failure was due to the desire of the United States to have 
a free hand in its political action, though one of the main 
objects of the Conference, as outlined in its programme, 
was: 

To take into consideration the means of rendering effective 
the declaration of the president of the United States [Monroe] 
in respect to the ulterior designs of any foreign power to 
colonize any part of the continent, and the means of resisting 
any decided interference in the domestic affairs of the Ameri- 
can governments. 

As the first proponent of genuine Pan Americanism, 
Bolivar suffered the fate of the proverbial prophet. His 
ideas or portions of his ideas were later taken up by 
Mexico, by Peru, and by combinations of various republics, 
but always with the same result. Unanimity of action was 
lacking, signatures could not be obtained from all govern- 
ments represented, some republics abstained from partici- 
pating in the congresses, or some of the principles put forth 
were characterized as contrary to the law of nations or to 
the obligations of one or more of the members. 



^ 




STATUE OF BOLIVAR, LIMA. 



International Rapprochement 171 

Especially persistent have been the attempts of the Cen- 
tral American republics to combine their forces and their 
resources under a united administration, and especially 
disconcerting have been their repeated failures to arrive 
at concrete results. That the project for unification is 
logical and beautiful, cannot be gainsaid, and that it has 
had sincere and ardent advocates since its inception in the 
early days of independence is patent to every reader of 
Central American history. Yet the newly created Federa- 
tion of Central America begins its life this year with a 
most discouraging past to live down. 

What can seem more practical or more necessary to the 
mind of a citizen of the United States than a union of 
the five States or republics of Central America? United, 
they form a territory of 179,916 square miles — exceeding 
that of the United Kingdom by more than 58,000 square 
miles — and possess a total population of over 5,000,000 
inhabitants : divided, the largest of them, Nicaragua, com- 
prises an area of 49,000 square miles, and Salvador, the 
smallest, of only 13,176 square miles; and the individual 
populations run from about half a million in Costa Rica 
to something like 2,000,000 in Guatemala.^ United, their 
total annual commerce amounts to about $150,000,000: 
divided, it is parceled out in relatively insignificant sums 
among the five republics. As separate States, they main- 
tain five armies, five navies, five complete departments of 
public administration, and five varying systems for the 
collection of customs duties. As one State, they could 
either have defensive forces of some size or do away with 
the majority of those now in existence; they could unify 
their external and internal procedure, economize in hun- 
dreds of different ways, command excellent foreign credit, 
build up their means of communication and transporta- 
tion in accordance with a definite plan, and vastly increase 
educational facilities ; and, above all, they could rid them- 
selves of the constant dangers and losses incident to the 
ambitions and quarrels of at least ten sets of opposing 

^ The above figures are based on the latest data issued by the 
Pan American Union. 



172 International Rapprochement 

political leaders by reducing the number of candidates to 
the supreme power to little more than two. United, as 
an editorial in the New York Evening Post suggests, "the 
little states can gain the same benefits in governmental 
integrity and efficiency, in the facilitation of trade and 
industry, and in prestige abroad that the thirteen Amer- 
ican States gained from their more perfect union in 1787. ' ' 
The advantages of union are so many and those of con- 
tinued division so few that anything less than consolidation 
seems preposterous and a severe reflection on the intellec- 
tual capacity of the people of the five republics. Never- 
theless, Central America has produced its quota of really 
great minds, has made notable progress both economically 
and politically, and is no more backward than the numerous 
small States of Europe which insist on individual existence 
and fight for it. The reasons for division in Central 
America are also, in the main, the same reasons, even to 
racial and temperamental differences, which have kept all 
Scandinavia or all of southern Europe between the Adriatic 
and the Black Sea from combining into one corporate 
body. 

RECENT ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CENTRAL 
AMERICA 

Perhaps, however, all such discussion is now beside the 
mark, since a Federation of Central America has actually 
been constituted, Honduras, Guatemala, and Salvador have 
lost their sovereign power (October, 1921), a Federal 
Council has assumed the supreme authority, and a dis- 
tinguished diplomatist of Guatemala has been mentioned 
for the honor of occupying for the first time the presiden- 
tial chair of the new republic. That Nicaragua and Costa 
Eica have not yet actually joined the association is not 
of the highest significance, for Article XVIII of the 
Covenant of January 19, 1921, expressly stipulates the 
following : 

The ratification of this treaty by three of the contracting 
states shall be sufficient to cause it to be considered binding 



International Rapprochement 173 

and obligatory among them and to cause them to proceed to 
its fulfilment. 

Any state that shall not approve this covenant may, however, 
enter the federation at any time when it shall make solicita- 
tion, and the federation shall admit it without the necessity 
of other steps than the presentation of the law approbatory 
of this treaty and of the federal constitution and constituent 
laws. In such an event, the federal council and the two legis- 
lative chambers shall be increased accordingly. 

Nicaragua is presumed to have abstained from becoming 
a member of the Federation on account of the Bryan- 
Chamorro Treaty, by virtue of which the United States 
has obtained the right in perpetuity to construct, operate, 
and maintain an interoceanic canal "via the San Juan 
River and the Great Lake of Nicaragua, or through any 
route on the territory of Nicaragua"; and the Government 
of Nicaragua has leased to the United States for a period 
of 99 years Great Corn Island and Little Corn Island and 
given the United States the right to a naval base on the 
Gulf of Fonseca, in consideration of which stipulations 
the United States pays Nicaragua the sum of $3,000,000 
gold, to be applied on the Nicaragua debt. Why this trans- 
action should stand in the way of Nicaragua's adherence 
to the Federation is, nevertheless, not clear, since Article 
IV of the Covenant of January 19, 1921, specifically states 
that 

Until the federal government shall have secured, by means 
of diplomatic procedure, the modification, derogation or re- 
placement of the existing treaties between the states of the 
federation and foreign nations, each state shall respect, and 
continue to comply faithfully with, the treaties that obtain 
between it and any foreign nation or nations, to the full extent 
involved in the existing engagements. 

Without doubt, other motives underlie Nicaragua's 
present attitude toward the Federation. 

As for Costa Rica's refusal to join her sister republics, 
many reasons have been alleged, any one of which may 
have proved to be the determining factor. Her geograph- 
ical position, which cuts her off from all the other republics 
except Nicaragua; her disputes with the latter country; 



174 International Rapprochement 

her feeling of superiority, born of her purer Spanish strain, 
uninterrupted prosperity, freedom from revolutions, 
greater educational advancement; her weaker military 
status; her fear that she may lose her present excellent 
prestige if swallowed up by the Union; her dependence 
on American capital; and her traditional policy, demon- 
strated on numerous occasions, of abstaining from taking 
the final step in projects for the unification of Central 
America — all or any of these causes may have influenced 
her in declining finally to enter the Federation, though 
she was a party to the Covenant of January 19, 1921, and 
a signatory to it through her delegates, Don Alejandro 
Alvarado Quiros and Don Cleto Gonzalez Vlquez. 

To the Covenant or the Constitution evolved from it, 
objection is almost impossible by any of the States. It 
is a most liberal and conciliatory document. 

It stresses throughout the federative character of the 
Union. Each state is to "preserve its autonomy and inde- 
pendence for the management and direction of its internal 
affairs"; the executive power is vested in a federal council 
of five proprietary delegates and five alternates, one of 
each to be elected from each state by popular vote for a 
term of four years; and the president and vice-president 
of the Federation are to be chosen by the Federal Council 
from among the proprietary delegates for a period of one 
year and are to act always in the name and by the vote 
or instruction of the Federal Council. The resemblance 
here to the commission form of government of some of 
our cities is striking. Foreign countries are protected in 
their rights, since the states "shall continue to meet the 
payments on their present internal and foreign debts," to 
which the Federal Government pledges itself to pay par- 
ticular attention. None of the states, as is to be expected, 
may contract foreign loans without the ratification of a 
federal law. Similarly, no state may enter into contracts 
"that shall in any way compromise its sovereignty or inde- 
pendence or the integrity of its territory. ' ' Dissatisfaction 
with such terms can come only from foreign nations which 
might hope to accomplish more for themselves through 



International Rapprochement 175 

dealings with the separate states than with the Federation 
as a whole. 

Theoretically, scarcely a flaw can be found with the idea 
of the Federation or with the political or economic founda- 
dations on which it is based. The project deserves the 
support of everybody who has the advancement of Central 
America at heart. Yet, for two capital reasons, serious 
doubt arises as to the permanence of the union. In the 
first place, two states, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, have, at 
the very outset, seen fit to remain outside the Federation. 
In the second place, a long career of failure has dogged 
the Federation from the past, though the circumstances 
leading to the attempts at union and the advantages of 
such union have always been very like the circumstances 
and the advantages of the present endeavor. 

ANTECEDENTS 

In 1821, exactly one hundred years ago, the different 
countries of Central America constituted themselves into 
the Central American Federation. The federation was 
short-lived, for Iturbide, Emperor of Mexico, promptly 
annexed it to his own domains in 1822. The downfall of 
Iturbide was followed by a renewal of the Federation, 
which lasted from 1823 to 1838. After a period of separa- 
tion beginning with the latter year, the five states 
repeatedly attempted either complete or partial union in 
1842, 1845, 1847, 1849, 1852, Costa Rica preferring almost 
always to stand off by itself, and Guatemala usually mak- 
ing war on the Federation. In connection with the Con- 
federation of 1847, the three member states, Nicaragua, 
Honduras, and Salvador, exasperated by the attitude of 
Guatemala, undertook a war for the purpose of obliging 
her to join them, but were themselves defeated by General 
Carrera. Between 1870 and 1890, the feeling for con- 
federation in Latin America slackened, as Dr. Alejandro 
Alvarez demonstrates, and was replaced in Central America, 
as elsewhere, by a fondness for congresses of a more or 
less technical nature, the change being due principally to 
the greater stability attained and the disappearance of 



176 International Rapprochement 

fears of aggression by Spain. Central American Congresses 
met in Guatemala in 1876 and in 1887, in Costa Rica in 
1888, and in Salvador in 1889, treaties of peace and friend- 
ship were signed, and a Republic of Central America was 
projected, but definite results in the way of federation 
were never arrived at. 

The friends of confederation, however, refused to yield 
to the difficulties which they encountered at every turn. 
Treaties looking toward union were signed in 1894 and 
1895 between Honduras and each of the other republics 
except Costa Rica. On June 20, 1895, Honduras, 
Nicaragua, and Salvador decreed the creation of The 
Greater Republic of Central America, but Guatemala and 
Costa Rica remained refractory, and nothing came of the 
proposed union. Again, in 1902, 1906 and 1907, con- 
ferences were held, partly at the instigation of the United 
States, treaties of peace and friendship were once more 
signed, a Central American Court of Justice, a Central 
American Bureau, and a Central American Pedagogical 
Institute were established, and views were exchanged on 
the amalgamation of the five republics into a single State. 
Finally, in 1917, the president of Honduras convoked an- 
other conference, and high hopes were entertained for the 
success of unification, but conditions in the world at large 
during the European War proved unfavorable, and the 
idea of union was again allowed to slumber until the 
present year. 

To the unprejudiced observer, the historical record must 
seem the darkest of omens for the new Federation of Cen- 
tral America. If, after so many different attempts, noth- 
ing tangible has resulted, what prospects are there that 
the year 1921 will change what may be regarded as settled 
habits of separatism? 

Boundary conflicts still trouble the tranquillity of several 
of the republics : economic difficulties still exist : the polit- 
ical machinery within each state is what it has always 
been: and the spirit of individual nationalism is, after a 
hundred years, a much more formidable obstacle to federa- 
tion than it was at any time during the first half of the 



International Rapprochement 177 

nineteenth century, when so many attempts at union were 
made. 

Prophecies of political and social changes made far in 
advance of the predicted happening are, of course, extra 
hazardous: and conditions to-day in many parts of the 
globe are such as have discredited numberless prophets 
who enjoyed a good reputation for clairvoyance in their 
day. Yet a prophet who should say that the Federation 
of Central America will not be an accomplished fact until 
a tremendous exterior calamity, such as attack or intoler- 
able oppression by a foreign power, or the rise of a "man 
of destiny" capable of forcing cohesion for a long period 
welds the five republics together would at least have history 
and psychology on his side. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Latin 
America, after shaking off the fetters which bound it to 
Spain, gave itself over to a particularistic development 
detrimental to its latent power as a homogeneous section 
of the globe. It missed that larger unity which has placed 
the United States in the vanguard of nations. At that 
time, Latin America recked little of solid plans for the 
future, for it felt safe from aggression, thanks to the 
Monroe Doctrine, and was unconscious of its own pos- 
sibilities. 

To-day, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Latin 
America realizes that it has a future before it, and is try- 
ing, by all the means of modern rapprochement, to work 
back to the homogeneity which it carelessly cast aside in 
its first flush of strength after its victory over Spain. The 
map of its international relations has been completely re- 
made in the course of one hundred years, and forces within 
itself, as well as beyond its boundaries, which it considered 
unimportant at the moment of independence, are now the 
forces which are molding its policies and its sentiments. 



PART II 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE GROWTH OF NATIONALISM 

Any study of the Latin American countries which, like 
the present one, surveys the entire region from the Rio 
Grande del Norte to Cape Horn and includes the words 
"Latin America" in its title, irremediably contributes to 
the perpetuation of a false and harmful conception of the 
status of the individual republics. 

The use of any other term as general as this, such as 
''Hispanic America," advocated for many years by Pro- 
fessor Aurelio M, Espinosa and Don Juan C. Cebrian with 
a wealth of excellent reasoning and recently adopted by 
the Second Spanish-American Congress of History and 
Geography at Seville, has the same effect. It enforces the 
impression of a large Latin American unity and minimizes 
the existence and the rapid growth of an individual 
national consciousness in each Latin American nation. 

"What!" the casual reader may exclaim. "Do you 
mean to say that there are nineteen distinct nationalities 
of Hispanic speech on our hemisphere? This is confusion 
worse confounded than in Europe!" 

Unfortunately, the fact cannot be denied. Separate 
nationalism constitutes to-day the most significant and in- 
teresting transformation in the political, social, and cul- 
tural ideals of Latiu America, and those ideals are largely 
conditioned on the rapidity or slowness with which the 
national consciousness takes concrete form in the various 
countries. Republics there are, like Argentina, Chile, and 
Brazil, which must be reckoned full-fledged nations by all 
the criteria applied to such European countries as Italy, 
Spain, and France: and the rest can not be refused the 

178 



The Growth of Nationalism 179 

dignity of nationality any more than can Sweden, Norway 
and Denmark, 

It is necessary to an understanding of Latin America 
to bear this circumstance in mind, for ''Latin America" 
will, as the result of force of habit, continue indefinitely 
to serve as a group name and consequently to paint in 
our imagination with a uniform color even republics so 
divergent in every way as Argentina and Nicaragua or 
Chile and Brazil. 

Not that the phrase ** Latin America" fails entirely to 
serve useful purposes. It has undoubtedly the same prac- 
tical advantages as the term "the Orient." It classes to- 
gether peoples having originally an identical or nearly 
identical historical and social background and a great 
similarity in temperament and aspirations. It also carries 
on the thought uppermost in the minds of some of the 
leaders in the struggle for independence that all the newly 
liberated colonies would ultimately take the coherent form 
of a single confederation. 

But, as has already been intimated, the various projects 
for confederation have come no nearer fruition after a 
hundred years than the Abbe de Saint-Pierre's Pro jet de 
paix perpetuelle, proposed before the middle of the 
eighteenth century, or the League of Nations, though none 
of these humanitarian plans can yet be said to have suffered 
final failure. The project for perpetual peace and the 
League of Nations figure at the present moment among the 
most vital topics under general discussion : and the Federa- 
tion of the Central American Republics appears actually 
to give substance to the hopes of many advocates of Latin 
American union. It is, nevertheless, fairly evident over 
Latin America as a whole, and even in Central America 
itself, that the idea of political confederation represents 
to-day a poetic longing rather than a feasible programme, 
that it is opposed to the genuine historical evolution of 
the Latin American republics, and that it has almost every- 
where been supplanted by the more modern and less vision- 
ary desire for inter-American rapprochement of an eco- 
nomic and social character. 



180 The Growth of Nationalism 



SKPARATISTIC TENDENCIES 

For the main current of Latin American thought has, 
ever since the days of independence, been swinging stead- 
fastly and inexorably in the direction of separate and 
local nationality. Each republic aspires to the status of 
distinct, individual nationality: and few practical states- 
men of Latin America, however much in sympathy they 
may be with the magnanimous notion of a united Latin 
America, allow the broader and, perhaps, more altruistic 
sentiment to interfere with their activities in behalf of 
the particular country in which they were born or have 
taken up residence. 

All the agencies, in fact, instrumental to the creation 
of sectional patriotism have been invoked in each of the 
republics, and a national consciousness encouraged by both 
natural and artificial means. The degree of success attained 
in this particularistic movement has varied in the different 
countries, due to racial, political, social, geographical, and 
educational causes: but that each republic is intent on 
instilling a fervid nationalistic enthusiasm in its residents, 
and especially in its children, becomes more evident as 
Latin America widens its interest in world affairs and 
emerges from the isolation to which the colonial system 
and the dearth of communications constrained it. Isolation 
in itself, it is true, had much to do with creating sectional 
patriotism through the distrust of outsiders engendered 
by racial, social, and intellectual inbreeding: but the re- 
moval of isolation is having precisely the same effect in 
exalting sectionalism at the expense of foreign intrusions 
or in opposition to surrounding nations. 

In the veins of no human being [recites the Argentine school- 
boy in his catechism] does there flow more generous blood 
than in our own; in the annals of the world the origin of no 
nationality is more resplendent with a more brilliant aureole 
than that which encircles the brow of the Argentine Repubhc. 
I am proud of my origin, of my race, of my country. 

This may sound dangerously like chauvinism: but it is 
merely the primitive chauvinism which underlies ^ 



The Growth of Nationalism 181 

patriotism taught as a matter of faith. The first patriotic 
teachings in all new countries have been of the same tenor, 
above all when, as in the Americas, the necessity of fusing 
different races and different civilizations has been 
imperative. 

The chances that Latin America would early develop 
high sectional feeling have been especially strong in view 
of the origin of the colonizers and the existence of estab- 
lished native races in various parts of the Latin American 
territories. 

The settlement of most of the present republics by the 
Spaniards and of Brazil by the Portuguese immediately 
created a division more effective than chains of mountains 
or mighty rivers. The reasons which have kept Spain 
and Portugal separate kingdoms except when artificially 
united, as under Philip II of Spain, by force, obtain in 
the New World. The sense of individual national integrity 
has in the process of time acquired a strength which may 
be regarded as permanent. 

The Portuguese of Brazil would scarcely be likely to 
brook Spanish domination, and the Spanish-speaking popu- 
lation of all the republics on which Brazil has frontiers — 
Ecuador and Chile being the only two republics of South 
America which Brazil does not touch — would be as little 
likely to tolerate Brazilian rule. The difference in lan- 
guage, though not linguistically great, is more than suffi- 
cient, because of the traditions and sentiments behind each, 
to act as a barrier against a sympathetic common under- 
standing. Indeed, the realization of the superficial 
similarity of Spanish and Portuguese, together with a 
knowledge of their intimate dissimilarities, militates more 
powerfully against the conception of either as an equivalent 
for the other than if they were frankly antipodean. The 
Spaniard or the Portuguese is more acutely sensitive to the 
garbling of his language by his nearest neighbor and kins- 
man than to its manhandling by an Englishman or a 
Frenchman. Other racial and social feelings tend to accen- 
tuate rather than to diminish the disparity between the 
Spanish-American and the Portuguese-American nations, 



18^ The Growth of Nationalism 

and Dr. Manoel de Oliveira Lima's acknowledgement, 
somewhat regretfully made, to the effect that ' ' The filiation 
and evolution of Portuguese America are separate from 
those of Spanish America, not infrequently, nay frequently 
rather was this evolution hostile to that of Spanish 
America, ' ' may be accepted as very close to the truth. 

Brazil remained an empire while Spanish America was 
fighting for its freedom, and did not declare its inde- 
pendence until 1889. The Spanish- American heroes are 
not its heroes, the Spanish- American struggles, which are 
being elevated to the dignity of Titanic combats, were not 
its struggles, the Spanish conquist adores were not its fore- 
bears, the Spanish-American social and political festivals 
and celebrations are not its great dates, Spanish and 
Spanish-American literature is not its literature, and 
Spanish-American political friends and allies are not its 
most cherished friends and allies, Brazil having ever in- 
clined to take lessons from the United States, whereas the 
Spanish-American countries have most frequently sought 
counsel from European governments. 

The converse of all this, of course, holds true for Spanish 
America. 

BRAZIL AS A DISTINCT NATION 

Whatever tests of nationality may be applied to it, and 
in spite of many essential similarities, Brazil cannot help 
appearing even to-day, when confronted with the rest of 
Latin America, as a clearcut nation. Its geographical posi- 
tion and immense size will probably always be a prolific 
source of fear and agitation on the part of the bordering 
Spanish-American republics, and its strenuous endeavors 
to instill the same fervent patriotism which is rife in Argen- 
tina and Chile will widen the social breach already so 
distinctly marked. The Brazilian child, like the Argentine 
child, has been taught to regard his fatherland as the 
greatest and the best country in the world, and the much 
quoted anecdote about the diminutive Italian immigrant 
of Buenos Aires, whose apologetic answer to the charge of 
having been born in Genoa was, "But I was so little," 



The Growth of Nationalism 183 

has been used also to illustrate the rapidity with which 
Brazil inspires its population with a stanch and lively 
Brazilianism. 

Since Brazil is almost certain to occupy more and more 
as time goes on the position of a distant member of the 
Latin American family in relation to its Spanish neighbors, 
its diplomatic role naturally consists in strengthening the 
bonds of commercial and intellectual friendship, rather 
than in attempting to rely on the sympathy of blood — 
which, moreover, as political history amply proves, is often 
little thicker than water. 

Thus far, Brazil, like the United States and Canada, 
has had to keep no army on any of its frontiers, and has 
solved most of its South American problems by diplomatic 
means. In spite of its opportunities for promoting fric- 
tion, it has exhibited a thoroughly generous spirit in arbi- 
trating questions in dispute and in seeking to mediate in 
controversies between Spanish America and foreign powers. 
Its leaders, like Dr. Ruy Barbosa, have been large-minded 
patriots, conscious that the well-being of Brazil depends 
on the well-being of South America; and their example 
cannot fail to serve as a wholesome inspiration to the grow- 
ing generations. Since the European War, and as an out- 
growth of the war, those leaders and the educational 
authorities of Brazil have become convinced of the neces- 
sity of assimilating more completely the foreign elements 
of the population, and have made added efforts, by pro- 
hibiting the teaching of foreign languages in the public 
elementary schools and emphasizing patriotism in the 
schools and in text-books, to create what may be called 
a 100 per cent Brazilianism, That they will guard against 
the inculcation of an aggressive nationalism cannot be 
questioned. 

Already many prophets in the Spanish-American 
republics see in the future an acutely nationalistic, imperial- 
istic Brazil and Argentina at grips for the control of the 
entire South American continent: and it cannot be denied 
that the actual "powers" in Latin America, because of 
the anxiety of each for a homogeneous people with a blind 



184 The Growth of Nationalism 

and intransigent confidence in its destiny, are running 
great risks in the grandiose patriotism which they are 
erecting into a creed admitting of no discussion. 

The case of Spanish- American nationalities is not quite 
as simple and definite as that of Brazilian nationality. 
Cuba and Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile, Mexico and 
Bolivia have the same European political and social 
antecedents and have never lost the sense of a common 
relationship. They were all subjected to the same Spanish 
experience, passed through practically the same struggles 
in securing independence, and were, most of them, until 
the middle of the nineteenth century, dominated by the 
same type of dictator, caudillo, or cacique. Apparently it 
should be the chief ambition of each to amalgamate with, 
its sister-republics from whom mountains, rivers and 
oceans, now practically meaningless or soon to be so, and 
the downfall of the Spanish colonial system separated it 
less than one hundred years ago. 

If the longing for solidarity has not always actuated 
the Latin American republics, why the resurrection of 
Bolivar's idea in the Congress at Lima in 1847-8, in the 
Continental Treaty signed by Chile, Peru, and Ecuador 
at Santiago, September 15, 1856, and a similar treaty signed 
in November of the same year by Mexico, Guatemala, Costa 
Rica, Salvador, New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela, and 
Peru, and in the second Congress at Lima in 1864-5, at 
which Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, 
Salvador, and Argentina were represented? Why have 
Eugenio Maria de Hostos and Jose de Diego, of Porto 
Rico, ardently advocated a Confederation of the Antilles? 
Why, too, has that distinguished Latin American publicist, 
Seiior F. Garcia Calderon, urged as late as 1911 the estab- 
lishment of five regional federations, namely, the Confed- 
eration of La Plata (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), 
the Confederation of the Pacific (Peru, Bolivia, and Chile), 
Greater Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela), 
the Confederation of Central America, and the Confed- 
eration of the Antilles? Why, finally, have the Central 



The Growth oi Nationalism 185 

American republics cast tlie die and formed the Federation 
of Latin America in this year of grace, 1921? 

Is the desire for the complete or partial union of the 
Latin American republics genuine and feasible, or is it 
only a beautiful aspiration impossible of realization 
because of the depth to which individual, separatist 
nationality has struck its roots? 

HISTORICAL REASONS FOR LACK OF SOLIDARITY AMONG THE 
SPANISH COUNTRIES OF LATIN AMERICA 

The only guides for a judicious appreciation of the prob- 
lem of nationality in general, as well as of the problem 
of solidarity, are to be found in the past of the different 
republics and in the history of other colonies existing at 
a distance from the mother-country. 

An examination of the latter point would probably force 
us to draw the conclusion that distant colonies of con- 
siderable size inevitably result in distinct nationalities. 
The Roman colonies became separate nations, especially 
where natural barriers divided the territory, and the 
English colonies of to-day — Canada, Australia, New 
Zealand, and South Africa — are, in the words of Mr. 
Richard Jebb, ''travelling the same road — ^the road from 
the colonial to the national status. ' ' That, however, a huge 
colonial territory need not perforce break up into a num- 
ber of nationalities or nations is evident from the career 
of the United States and Brazil. It is quite possible that, 
if Bolivar 's Congress of Panama had been successful, Latin 
America might now consist of only a few national divisions 
or even of only one great nation with a single nationality. 
Yet the presumption was, from the very beginning, be- 
cause of the characteristics of the colonizers and the natives 
and because of the topography of Latin America, that a 
unified Latin America could not maintain itself. 

The physical, climatic, and racial reasons for some degree 
of differentation have been plainly shown by Viscount 
Bryce in his South America, which is the most thoughtful 
and sanely philosophical book thus far written on the polit- 
ical and social evolution of Latin America, though, perhaps, 



186 The Growth of Nationalism 

as critics have intimated, not at all equal to his American 
CommonwealtJi. Cuba and Santo Domingo, as insular terri- 
tory, Chile, Argentina, and Peru, through lofty mountain 
ranges almost impassable in the days preceding the rail- 
road and the telegraph, and Mexico as a portion of an- 
other continent, were predestined to a separate develop- 
ment and to a separate national existence. The establish- 
ment of viceroyalties and captaincies general by the 
Spanish Government, too, contributed to the growth of 
political divisions which often corresponded to the natural 
topographical divisions. Climate and distance, in all likeli- 
hood, were extremely influential in partitioning the terri- 
tory and people of the temperate zone from the territory 
and people of the tropical and subtropical zones. The 
variable progress of the original races worked against 
amalgamation on a large scale, the Aztecs and the subjects 
of the Incas proving refractory to the immediate imposi- 
tion of an all-Spanish culture, though capable of absorb- 
ing such culture, the warlike Araueanians of Chile proving 
violently opposed to it, and the scattered uncivilized tribes 
proving neither susceptible to that style of culture nor 
qualified to evolve any other from their inner conscious- 
ness. 

The practical task of dealing with these divergent ethnic 
groups was a vital factor in the creation of separate 
nationalities from the very start. The resultant nationali- 
ties might, indeed, have been broader, if the Spaniards 
had wished to make them so, but they could have been 
welded into a single unit only through the implanting of 
a much more extensive administrative system than Spain 
was able to furnish for its colonies. 

Moreover, the Spanish rulers were utterly impervious to 
any notion of founding a coherent empire. Administrative 
tracts were parceled out from time to time and then 
neglected, in so far as the Home Office was concerned, 
provided that the Crown imposts were paid in and the 
monopoly of trade retained. Spain was never, in reality, 
an empire builder. It never succeeded in arousing the 
imperial cooperation and loyalty which England has con- 



The Growth of Nationalism 187 

sidered its first duty to inspire. Therein lies the difference 
in unity between Spanish America and Portuguese 
America. Brazil became, before it was too late, the Por- 
tuguese Empire and even, during the Napoleonic campaign, 
the shelter and the residence of the Court of Portugal. 
The presence of the Portuguese king and of the princes 
of the House of Braganza brought centralization to Brazil, 
and centralization broke down separatist barriers which 
might have become permanent. To be sure, it later con- 
verted the Empire into a republic, but into a republic of 
united states. 

No Spanish king or princes of the royal blood came to 
Spanish America to act as a focus for unified patriotic 
sentiment. No common ideal, except that of religion, was 
set up for Spanish immigrants and native Indians to 
worship. On the contrary, the naturally centrifugal bent 
of the Spaniards from the different provinces of the mother- 
country was allowed full sway. 

The Spaniard, as has been demonstrated clearly in the 
history of the Spanish nation, rarely harbors a truly 
national loyalty. Napoleon may drive the inhabitants of 
Madrid to such desperation that his grenadiers cannot any 
better withstand the rabble armed with homely weapons 
quickly caught up than the trained British soldiers could 
resist the onset of the raw farmers of Lexington and Con- 
cord : but the surrounding provinces come to the assistance 
of their hard-pressed compatriots chiefly to protect them- 
selves or as a special favor, and not through the sense of 
duty born of national solidarity. Spain has rarely risen 
as a whole country to oppose invaders or to conquer new 
territory. Each province has fought the enemy as a 
separate unit, and has expelled him into the adjacent 
province, which has in turn passed him on, to be dealt with 
as seemed best to the inhabitants of the next district : and 
precisely that method was followed in Latin America in 
the eviction of Spain. The Conquerors never recruited a 
national army. They gathered together small bands and 
carried on their exploration and conquest separately, 
though sometimes, as in the case of Cortes, Pizarro, Balboa, 



188 The Growth of Nationalism 

and Hernando de Soto, learning from the trials of one 
another and exchanging counsel. 

The effect on the early political structure of the New 
World was inevitable. The Pizarros lorded it over Peru, 
and molded the early political organization of the con- 
quered country. Cortes and Valdivia left the impress of 
their personality on the political structure of Mexico and 
Chile. The communistic experiments of the Jesuits in 
Paraguay beginning in the later years of the sixteenth 
century foreshadowed the communistic dictatorship of Dr. 
Francia, El Supremo, in the first half of the nineteenth 
century. The democratic colonists of Argentina — ^where 
the democratic spirit has, since the foundation of the city 
of Santa Maria de Buenos Aires, been more noticeable than 
elsewhere in Latin America — elected their own governor, 
Arias de Saavedra, in 1591 : and nothing was left for the 
Spanish Crown but to confirm this popular election. The 
special flavor given at the start to political and social life 
in Latin America by groups of Spaniards of varying tem- 
perament and ideals persists long after those groups them- 
selves have become extinct. 

The method by which the colonies were originally gov- 
erned led through easy steps to political divisions which 
were practically preserved after the victories of inde- 
pendence. 

In colonial days, the principal territorial divisions, 
or viceroyalties, were made up of subdivisions called 
"audiencias" or ''presidencies." The viceroyalty of New 
Spain included all the present countries of Spanish North 
America, and the viceroyalty of Peru, embracing all the 
possessions of South America, was, in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, separated into the viceroyalties of Peru (Peru and 
Chile), New Granada (Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador), 
and La Plata (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uru- 
guay). The War of Independence perpetuated, almost 
without change, the limits of the "audiencias" in the new 
republics of Mexico, Central America, Greater Colombia, 
Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and the United Provinces 



The Growth of Nationalism 189 

of La Plata. Some further subdivision was later made, 
notably in Central America. 

For the greater part of their history, then, the Latin 
American republics have existed as territorial units with 
established traditions and practices, which, while similar 
in many respects, have undergone marked differentiation. 
The administration of the Americas, embodied in the 
Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contratacion (House 
of Trade), kept these units definitely in mind in the 
appointment of ofScials and in the formulation of trade 
regulations, and consequently encouraged the growth of 
local or departmental sentiment as opposed to a feeling 
of solidarity. As "native sons" entered more fully into 
the departmental life, the distinction between Mexicans, 
Peruvians, Chileans, Argentinians, Bolivians, became so 
sharp that the sense of a general Spanish nationality was 
almost obliterated. Spaniards away from the mother- 
country were more likely than not to transfer their 
allegiance to their immediate locality, in accordance with 
their inveterate regionalistic inclinations. 

LATIN AMERICANS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EUROPEAN 
SPANIARDS 

The subsequent history of the Latin American countries 
has strengthened and made more prominent their indi- 
viduality. None of them can now be confused with Spain 
nor with any of the provinces of Spain. The Spanish 
Andalusian and the Spanish- American Cuban, the Spanish 
Castilian and the Spanish-American Costa Rican, the 
Spanish Catalonian and the Spanish-American Argentinian 
differ as much, and in as many ways, as the Englishman 
and the American of the United States. To deny the Latin 
American republics a definite nationality of their own is 
equivalent to denying the rise of new species jn the social 
organization of mankind. 

To the Englishman, the American is sui generis, in spite 
of a practical identity in language and literature. The 
Cuban, the Costa Rican, the Argentinian, the Peruvian, 
the Mexican are likewise "outsiders" to Spaniards, though 



190 The Growth of Nationalism 

the Spaniards who have not traveled may be unable readily 
to distinguish among them, just as the sedentary English- 
man may be unable to distinguish among Australians, 
Canadians, and British South Africans. But the Costa 
Riean never mistakes a Chilean for one of his own people, 
nor the Mexican a Uruguayan, nor the Colombian a 
Bolivian — at least, after a few moments of conversation. 

The question of nationality is particularly important 
because of our increased relations with Latin America and 
the necessity of understanding each nation by itself. It 
is not enough to classify Latin Americans under the gen- 
eric category of ''Latin Americans." The attempt to do 
so results in friction and untold misconceptions. Bolivar 
means little to Brazilians, Dom Pedro II means nothing 
to Mexicans, and Artigas, the national hero of Uruguay, 
is scarcely even a name to Guatemalans. Hard though it 
may be for the American traveler or businessman, he 
must, if he wishes to be on intimate terms with the people 
of the several republics, know what are the national ambi- 
tions, the national episodes, the national conflicts, and who, 
the national heroes and personages. The mention of 
Captain Prat, of the Chilean man-of-war Esmeralda, is 
no more grateful to Peruvian ears than the mention of 
John Paul Jones to English ears. 

The definition and the conclusions of Viscount Bryce 
with respect to Latin American nationality may be accepted 
without reserve. 

It is dangerous to offer a definition which may not cor- 
respond to usage, for usage is the only true master and inter- 
preter of words; and usage is in this case loose and varying. 
But it might not be far wide of the mark to say that while 
a nationality is a population held together by certain ties, 
as, for example, language and literature, ideas, customs, and 
traditions, in such wise as to feel itself a coherent unity, 
distinct from other populations similarly held together by like 
ties of their own, a Nation is a nationality, or a subdivision 
of a nationality, which has organized itself into a political 
body, either independent or desiring to be independent. This 
description would encounter some doubtful cases. . . . With- 
out multiplying doubtful cases, however, the description pre- 
sented above, and any description which tries to represent 



The Growth of Nationalism 191 

current usage, would recognize the fact, that wherever a com- 
munity has both political independence and a distinctive char- 
acter recognizable in its numbers, as well as in the whole body, 
we call it a nation. Applying such a test to the Spanish- 
American republics, some of them, such as Mexico, Argentina, 
and Chile, are undeniably nations, while even some at least 
of the smaller, such as Cuba, Ecuador, and Paraguay, have 
attained sufficient individuality and consciousness of corporate 
unity to make them feel and act together and desire to pre- 
sei*ve their independence. If they maintain that consciousness 
and that independence for another fifty years, their nation- 
hood will be indisputable. The bud is opening, even if the 
form and colors of the petals are not yet fully visible. 

This sound conclusion Viscount Bryce qualifies slightly 
in a footnote: "Whether the same can be said of some 
of the Central American republics may be doubted. ' ' The 
present organization of the Central America Union appears 
to bear out Mr. Bryce 's qualifying statement: but much 
depends on the outcome of the Union, and final judgment 
had, perhaps, better be postponed. 

Probably nobody to-day will refuse to admit the larger 
Latin American republics into the concert of nations. 
Their diplomatic standing is of the first class, their deal- 
ings with foreign countries are on the plane of political 
equality, the treaties negotiated by them have complete 
international validity, and their standing in the League 
of Nations has not been exposed to the uncertainties which 
have hedged about some of the dubious ''nations" of the 
rest of the world. Argentina, Brazil, and Chile have, in 
fact, through their delegations, taken a leading part in 
the discussions of that Assembly, and have shown them- 
selves to be not a whit behind the United States, Great 
Britain, or Prance in their grasp of international problems. 

It is significant that the League's committee on the 
admission of new members was composed of members of 
the Chilean and Uruguayan delegations, that the vice- 
chairman of the committee having to do with mandates, 
armaments, and the economic weapon was a Cuban rep- 
resentative, that the vice-chairman of the committee on 
finance was Dr. Restrepo of Colombia, and that two of the 



192 The Growth of Nationalism 

six vice-presidents of the League were Senor Pueyrredon 
of Argentina and Senhor Oetavio of Brazil. 

The status of a few of the smaller republics may still 
be called into question, in the opinion of some students. 
Is Paraguay a nation, or is it simply an extension of Brazil 
on the one side and Argentina on the other? Does it exist 
in a lifelike manner, or does it remain a buffer state by 
courtesy of its powerful neighbors, who will try to swallow 
it up as they tried to do in one of the most sanguinary 
wars (1865-1870) of which there is historical record, when 
Paraguay, having entered the conflict with 1,337,439 
inhabitants, emerged independent, but reduced to a popu- 
lation of 28,746 men and 106,254 women — a loss of 90 per 
cent of its total population ? Is Cuba safely a nation under 
the overshadowing wing of the United States? Is Santo 
Domingo, or more properly, the Dominican Eepublic, to 
be regarded as a genuine nation when the United States 
can establish a supervisory government on its soil at any 
moment? Are the Central American republics, once 
annexed to Mexico by Iturbide and constantly feeling the 
pressure of foreign capital in their political evolution, 
entitled to consideration as nations? 

In reality, the doubt thrown on the individual nationality 
of some of the smaller republics is purely academic. All 
of them have maintained themselves as separate states for 
half a century or more, and all of them are thoroughly 
imbued with a nationalistic spirit. The formation of fed- 
erations of several of the republics does not signify the 
surrender of national integrity, but only the cultivation of 
friendly relations and uniform action in all the problems 
affecting them singly or as a whole. 

CHIEF FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL 
NATIONAL SPIRIT 

The principal factors in the growth of Latin American 
nationalism in the past have been the War of Independence, 
the wars between republics, and the rule of the dictators. 
The principal factors at present are the rise of a literature 
of intense regionalism, the popular appeal of the press, the 



The Growth of Nationalism 193 

teachings of the public schools, the celebration of national 
expositions and congresses, economic and, to a certain ex- 
tent, political expansion, the progress of the United States 
southward, and the present-day doctrine of self-determina- 
tion resulting from the European War. Each set of causes 
has been perfectly appropriate to the times. As in the 
United States, first wars, then education and pride in na- 
tional advancement have united the Latin American peoples 
into corporate bodies with a single mass consciousness. 

The story of Latin American independence and the 
events immediately following it is one of extreme individ- 
ualism, and as such, highly conducive to the establishment 
of separate states. Three leaders in different sections 
shared the honors of wresting control from Spain, — Itur- 
bide in Mexico, Bolivar in the northern half of Spanish 
America, and San Martin in the southern half. Cuba and 
Porto Rico remained Spanish colonies until the Spanish 
American war of 1898, the Dominican Republic, attached 
to the Haitian Republic until 1843, became an independent 
state in 1844; and Brazil, after the bloodless revolution of 
1889 ending in the amicable abdication of Dom Pedro II, 
— an emperor beloved by his people during a reign of 
neary half a century, and respected at home and abroad 
for his learning and his protection of the arts and sciences, 
— began to function as a federal republic in 1891. The 
Central American republics gained their freedom in conse- 
quence of the Spanish defeats in Mexico and South Amer- 
ica, and not as the result of hard-fought campaigns, joined 
their fortunes to those of Mexico for a brief space, bound 
themselves shortly afterwards into a confederation called 
the Provincias Vnidas del Cetitro de America (United 
Provinces of Central America), and in 1838 separated into 
the five republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, 
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Panama had elected in 1821 
to cast its lot with the newly created republic of Colombia, 
and did not finally resume its independent and individual 
existence until 1903. 

Unconfined to a single leadership, the whole Spanish- 
American 9,rea, of ^QUth America quickly broke up intQ 



194 The Growth of Nationalism 

separate units immediately after the initiation of the strug- 
gle for independence. Paraguay, incited by the Argentine 
general, Belgrano, threw oif Spanish rule and placed itself 
under the dictatorship of Dr. Francia, whom Carlyle has 
termed one of the most remarkable characters in history. 
Chile owed its freedom to the combined exertions of Ber- 
nardo O'Higgins and San Martin. Uruguay was absorbed 
by Brazil in its first attempt at independence from Spain 
under Artigas, but ultimately tore itself loose from Brazil- 
ian domination with the aid of Argentina. The Confedera- 
tion of the North divided after the death of Bolivar and 
was partitioned among the lieutenants of the Liberator, 
Venezuela falling to Paez and Ecuador to Juan Jose Flores. 
General Sucre, the right-hand man of Bolivar, was chosen in 
1826 the first president of the republic of Bolivia, created 
by Bolivar and named after him. Colombia withdrew from 
the confederation the year following Bolivar's death. Peru 
became the prize of various military commanders who had 
fought at Ayacucho. Subsequently (1836-1844) Peru and 
Bolivia were joined together under Santa Cruz, but the 
union did not endure,^ 

Yet, throughout all the vicissitudes of rapid dictator- 
ships, kaleidoscopic revolutions, American intervention in 
Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, and Nica- 
ragua, and foreign propaganda of various kinds, the Latin 
American republics have kept substantially the form given 
to them within the first decade of independence. Paraguay 
was almost annihilated, but not destroyed. Peru was con- 
quered by the military and naval forces of Chile, which 
occupied Lima from 1881 to 1884, but Chile, instead of 
carrying its advantage as far as it might have done, assisted 
the distracted Peruvians in reestablishing their own govern- 
ment. Bolivia, as has been mentioned, was temporarily 
assimilated by Peru, but soon regained its individuality. 
The countries which have known the tramping of American 
soldiers or marines on their soil have lost no territory and 
suffered no loss in political organization through American 
supervision, despite general alarm, suspicion, and fear, and 
the prognostications of ''friendly" foreign observers. 



The Growth of Nationalism 195 

The possibility of aggression, either by outside powers 
or by some of the Latin American nations against their 
weaker brethren, is much less now than at any period since 
the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, 

The influence of war on the solidification of a national 
spirit is so general and so sure that special discussion of 
it with regard to Latin America would be supererogatory. 
Some few peoples in the world there may be which have 
risen above the obvious impetus given to patriotism by the 
dangers of attack from others or the enthusiasm of attack 
upon others, but Latin America has not yet reached that 
altruistic height. War and the concomitants of war electri- 
fied the people of Buenos Aires into a positive ardor of 
nationalism by the double defeat of the English invaders 
under Beresford and Whitelock in 1806, Paraguay lost 
nearly all its men but grew in national spirit through its 
unparalleled struggle with Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, 
Cuba emerged nationalistic from the final conflict with 
Spain, and Chile and Peru have for a generation been filled 
with a feverish patriotism as a result of the War of the 
Pacific from 1879 to 1883. The baptism of fire has in many 
instances aroused in Latin America a dormant or subdued 
sense of national unity. 

LATIN AMERICAN DICTATORS AS CONTRIBUTORS TO 
PATRIOTISM 

This ready response to the stimuli of combat constituted 
one of the strongest weapons of the dictators who ruled 
the Latin American republics from the period of Inde- 
pendence to 1852, when the most astounding of them all, 
Juan Manuel Ortiz de Rosas, of Argentina, fled to England 
to spend the remainder of his days quietly cultivating 
flowers near Southampton. It was always a simple matter 
for a dictator to raise the standard of war and the cry 
of Fatherland, — though his opponent might simultaneously 
be doing the same thing. 

Undoubtedly the dictators as a rule pursued selfish ends 
and thirsted for the pomp and glory which have encircled 
the name of the Venezuelan caudillo, Guzman-Bianco, or 



196 The Growth of Nationalism 

the power for good or ill which was the guiding motive of 
Rosas, variously termed benefactor and monster. But 
given the turbulent epoch in which the dictatorship de- 
veloped into both an art and a science, it is difficult to see 
^how even well-intentioned leaders, like Ramon Castilla of 
Peru or Juan Antonio Lavalleja of Uruguay, could refrain 
from making hasty and, perhaps, disastrous decisions or 
avoid the appearance of tyranny. In a true democracy, 
many of them, men of fine intellect and splendid energy, 
would have earned the title of beneficent centralizers, car- 
rying through to a successful conclusion admirable projects 
of public improvement. History, as it is usually written, 
has been conspicuously unfair to them as a class. 

The chief legacy which the dictators left to their sev- 
eral countries was an intense and aggressive spirit of na- 
tionalism. An unprogressive and disunited public saw 
them accomplish what may well be termed wonders in ad- 
ministration, in economic development, in educational 
progress, if the comparatively short period of their terms 
and the condition of the newly founded republics are taken 
into account. Guzman-Bianco in Venezuela did much for 
education, reformed the civil and penal codes, opposed the 
plots of foreign governments, stimulated industry, pro- 
tected the arts, and upheld the rights of the Venezuelan 
nation; Lavalleja of Uruguay, with his band of "Thirty- 
Three" and the cry ** Liberty or Death," stood for "an 
orderly independence, a disciplined liberty"; and Rosas, 
now a Hoodthirsty tyrant, now a benevolent despot, built 
up Argentina, introduced practical methods in industry, 
developed a constructive financial policy, and gave the 
common people, especially his favorite gauchos, of whom 
he was one, a political and social equality with the upper 
classes. 

The work of Rosas [comments Sefior F. Garcia Calderon] 
was profoundly Argentine. It presents a triple civilising sig- 
nificance; it overcame the partial caudillos, conquered the wilder- 
ness, and founded an organic confederation. Traditional, for 
it respected ancient liberties; opportunist, adapted at the critical 
moment of national evolution, for it prevented the disaggrega- 
tion of the provinces by the labours of unconscious leaders, lifee 



The Growth of Nationalism 197 

Porfirio Diaz, Rosas destroyed the provincial caudillos; he was 
a Maehiavelli of the pampas. . . . "Rosas is the Louis XI. of 
Argentine history," said Ernesto Quesada, with justice; for over 
the heads of the feudal barons he raised a magnificent unitarian 
structure; he was the creator of Argentine nationality. 

As much may be urged for many another dictator. Most 
of them, for the very reason that they wished to represent 
themselves as saviors of their countries, gave an epic tone 
to their opposition to foreign interests and by unceasing 
iteration drummed into the heads of their "fellow-citizens" 
a national consciousness of which they were the highest 
representatives. The process was artificial in the extreme 
and based on principles of elementary psychology, but it 
served its purpose and lost none of its effectiveness simply 
because it was artificial. And unquestionably a few of them 
were sincere patriots who worked against foreign perils 
not because they risked nothing more than the prosperity 
and the lives of their countrymen, but because they believed 
in the dangers and were willing to risk their own fortunes 
and heads in combating them. Even a belated dictator 
like Cipriano Castro of Venezuela, whose international 
squabbles provoked a storm of wrathful ridicule, had a 
high, if exaggerated, spirit of patriotism and stoutly in- 
sisted on the treatment due a regularly constituted nation. 

MODERN METHODS OP INSPIRING PATRIOTISM 

The nationalistic education of the public has now re- 
placed the violent methods of the dictators. Patriotism 
and nationalism are taught in the schools either openly or 
by indirection. 

The national songs of Latin America, — many of which 
surpass in beauty of thought and music those of far more 
prominent nations, — are sung daily with fire and fervor 
throughout the length and breadth of Latin American 
lands. The adoration of the flag as the symbol of the na- 
tion is invested with a religious solemnity : and the children 
of immigrants, as well as the native-born children, quickly 
become infected, as Mr. J. 0. P. Bland points out, with 



198 The Growth of Nationalism 

that love of the flag which all nations most aspire to im- 
plant in the breasts of the growing generations: 

. . . All this flotsam and jetsam from the shores of Europe 
is being rapidly and consciously amalgamated into a new and 
sturdy generation of Argentines. The sons of an Englishman, 
born here of a native woman, will grow up without knowledge 
of the English tongue and not desire to learn it. In the 
colonists' school attached to the factory [there is a separate 
one for Indians] the cult of the flag is a very sincere and 
serious ceremony, in which the children take intense pride. 

From Cuba and Mexico down to the nethermost tip of 
the South American continent, the national history of each 
republic is taught by means of nationally adopted text- 
books setting forth the glories of the Fatherland and dis- 
counting its defects, though often, as in Francisco Valdes 
Vergara's Historia de Chile, treating with surprising im- 
partiality both the good and the bad. Many of the repub- 
lics have introduced into their schools books of the nature 
of the Argentine Espora's Episodios nacionales (National 
Episodes), which are a challenge to young readers of all 
classes to emulate the patriotic self-sacrifice and unques- 
tioning loyalty of the men, women and children of low and 
high rank whose exploits are narrated in a ringing, melo- 
dramatic style. Recently, the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion of Venezuela issued an order to the inspectors of 
schools requesting them to substitute patriotic readings 
dealing with the life of Bolivar and other heroes of the 
War of Independence for many of the less significant books 
now in use. 

The larger and more mature public is similarly induced 
to patriotic ardor by the broader educational agencies of 
public discussion, newspaper, panegyrics, national exposi- 
tions and congresses, literary contests, political oratory, and 
regionalistic poems, novels, plays and operas. 

EEGIONALISTIC LITERATURE AND PATRIOTISM 

The regionalistic phase of Latin American literature 
has, in fact, resulted in the strongest and best works 
which Latin American writers have thus far produced: 



The Growth of Nationalism 199 

and regionalism is, of course, in the final analysis, synony- 
mous with patriotism and nationalism. 

A whole literature with a deeply regionalistic and na- 
tionalistic substratum of feeling has grown up about the 
gaucho, or cowboy, of the southern plains of South Amer- 
ica. The gaucho typifies, particularly for Argentina, the 
independent spirit, the hardihood, the naive sentimentality, 
the quick presence of mind, and the promptness to action 
which all effete countries, or those on the road to becoming 
effete, are fond of recalling as a sign of what their virile 
manhood once was. 

The gaucho is to Argentine writers what our trappers, 
our Daniel Boones, our cowboys, apotheosized in the tales 
of James Fenimore Cooper and O. Henry, are to our story- 
tellers. 

Though nearly extinct, the gaucho survives as a national 
hero. He is the most characteristically epic figure wrought 
by Latin American civilization, and Sarmiento has aptly 
chosen him in Facundo for the protagonist in his half- 
romantic, half-philosophical treatise on Argentine evolu- 
tion and the pernicious policies of Juan Manuel de Rosas. 
The gaucho 's home, the pampas, his inner life, his taking 
of the law in his hands, his simple, poetic improvisation, 
his devotion to his horse, his melancholy, his fondness for 
the guitar have been the theme of the Argentine writers 
Echeverria, J. M. Gutierrez (Amoves del Payador, The 
Loves of the Minstrel), Bartolome Mitre, Ricardo 
Gutierrez (Fausto, Faust: The impressions of the gaucho, 
Anastasio el Polio, at the performance of the opera deal- 
ing with Goethe's hero), Jose Hernandez {Martin Fierro: 
the story of a gaucho driven to outlawry by his misfor- 
tunes), and many other poets, novelists, and playwrights, 
among whom should be mentioned Francisco Bauza of 
Uruguay. Everywhere the gaucho is represented as the 
primeval Argentinian or Urug-uayan out of whom grew 
the rich and complicated civilization of to-day. 

The gaucho is, too, a tribute to the ability of Latin Amer- 
ican writers to create a genuinely original literary species. 
That the gaucho literature, either from its national or its 



200 The Growth of Nationalism 

esthetic qualities, is peculiarly attractive even in transla- 
tion may be gathered from the comment of a wide reader 
of Latin American literature : ' ' The most interesting trans- 
lation from South America, according to my tastes, is 
'Three Plays from the Argentine' . . . gaucho — cowboy 
or outlaw — dramas, naive and vigorous, as they are given 
in the traveling theatres, a curious local development. ' ' 

Throughout Latin America, in fact, national customs 
and manners and national history now occupy the first 
place in the repertory of both popular and scholarly 
writers, Maria by Jorge Isaacs, the Colombian — the 
favorite novel of Latin America, and an idyl that recalls 
Chateaubriand, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and Edgar 
Allan Poe's Raven — ^has been known in English for nearly 
half a century, and Marroquin's Pax, Marmol's Amalia, 
Alberto Blest Gana's Martin Bivas, and a few regionalistic 
works by Rufino Blanco-Pombona and other Latin Amer- 
ican authors have recently been made available in English 
translations. 

But these works by no means complete the tale of the 
tremendous output of regionalistic literature during the 
past half century. Pastor Obligado, Carlos Maria Ocantos, 
and Emma B. de la Barra of Argentina, Luis Orrego Luco, 
Enrique del Solar, and Alberto Blest Gana of Chile, Rufino 
Blanco-Fombona and Manuel Diaz Rodriquez of Venezuela, 
Ricardo Palma of Peru, Justo Sierra and Jose Maria Roa 
Barcena of Mexico, Carlos Reyles and Eduardo Acevedo 
Dias of Uruguay, Fernandez Guardia and Aquiles 
Echeverria of Costa Rica, Federico Garcia Godoy of the 
Dominican Republic, Manuel Zeno Gandia and Manuel 
Fernandez Juncos of Porto Rico, Jesus Castellanos of Cuba, 
besides a whole school of regionalists in Brazil, are only a 
handful out of the great multitude of Latin American men 
and women of letters who are finding inspiration in the 
national life of their countries and giving the national life 
a more elevated status in the eyes of their fellow-citizens. 
Out of this plethora of regionalism a few classics may be 
expected with confidence. 



The Growth of Nationalism 201 

FEAR OF THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICAN 
PATRIOTISM 

The internal incitements to the growth of nationalism, 
detailed in the preceding paragraphs, are supplemented 
by an ever-present external factor — the southward pres- 
sure of the United States. The fears felt by the Latin 
American republics are in every way identical with the 
feelings of the countries surrounding ante-bellum Ger- 
many. The United States looms up as a huge avalanche, 
gathering momentum year by year, cutting off a corner of 
Latin America at periodic intervals, and certain in the 
end, unless superhuman efforts are made, to engulf every- 
thing below the Eio Grande — at least, so reason many other- 
wise sane and enlightened Latin Americans. The convic- 
tion is firmly rooted that a malevolent plan of absorption 
is being carried out with implacable conscientiousness, and 
that Latin American nationality is under present condi- 
tions totally unable to withstand annihilation. The United 
States is to Latin America, in many quarters, what the 
**Bear that walks like a man" has been to European states- 
men since the days of Peter the Great : and Latin America 
is helpless, because it cannot help itself nor, on account of 
the Monroe Doctrine, enter into entangling alliances. 

Always behind the growing cordiality between Latin 
America and the United States lurk the fears appealed 
to with some virulence by Seiior Rufino Blanco-Fombona, 
perhaps the most distinguished contemporary litterateur 
of Venezuela, but harbored in secret by thinking Latin 
Americans of more moderate temperament: 

The United States was until the first war with Mexico a 
people without mihtaristic or imperialistic ambitions, the 
model and the home of civic liberty. All South America ad- 
mired it with the same ardor with which to-day it detests it 
for its fraudulent elections, its trusts, its Tammany Hall . . . 
its shirt-sleeve diplomacy, its university professors who write 
about Spanish America with supine ignorance, its explosion 
of the Maine, its Panama secession, its seizure of the finances 
of Honduras, its control of the custom-houses of Santo Domingo, 
the blood which it spilled and the independence which it de- 



202 The Growth of Nationalism 

stroyed in Nicaragua, the revolutions which it foments in Mexico 
and its landing at Vera Cruz, its claim of 81,500,000 bolivares 
against Venezuela when in reality only 2,182,253 were due it, 
according to the verdict of a foreign arbitrator, its Alsop 
claim against Chile, its ill-concealed views on the Galapagos 
Islands of Ecuador and the Chinchas Islands of Peru, its daily 
affirmation that Argentine statistics are not worth believing, 
its pretensions of hindering Brazil from valorizing its coffee 
as seems best to it, its knocking in the head of Porto Rico, 
its Piatt amendment to the Cuban Constitution, its purposeful 
conversion of its cables and newspapers into a discrediting 
bureau against all and each of the American republics, its 
aggressive imperialism, its entire conduct, with respect to Latin. 
America for the past half-century. 

Convictions like these, though discredited by the diplo- 
matic activities of the United States since the beginning of 
this century, by the friendly reception by the newspapers 
of any material favorable to Latin America, by the tre- 
mendous circulation of the Pan American Bulletin, the 
South American, the Pan American Magazine, and other 
periodicals consistently devoted to the presentation of 
laudatory and appreciative articles on Latin America, hj 
the earnest efforts of teachers to dispel antiquated notions 
about the Latin American republics, by the publication of 
innumerable books which make a point of emphasizing the 
merits and passing over the defects of those countries, by 
our withdrawal from Cuba and Santo Domingo and our 
abstention from positive political interference in Mexico, 
naturally carry weight in Latin America when uttered by 
men of standing. They reinforce the nationalistic senti- 
ments of the countries on our frontiers, such as Cuba, 
Mexico, Central America, Santo Domingo, Venezuela, and 
Colombia, foster the ambitions of Argentina, Chile, and 
the more distant republics to try to attain to a development 
which will enable them to shake off our influence on their 
destiny, and cause Latin America as a whole to rise up 
in indignation whenever the United States appears to in- 
fringe the rights or wound the feelings of any one of the 
republics by military, political, or commercial means. 

The double effect of the heightening of the national spirit 
from within by the instrumentality of education, social and 



The Growth of Nationalism 203 

commercial expansion, and newspaper and political indoc- 
trination, and of the stiffening of the national backbone 
by pressure from without has already led to a species of 
jingoism in Argentina and Chile. The preponderance of 
Argentina, Chile, and Brazil has caused some tremors 
among their smaller neighbors, and, consequently, a more 
emphatic nationalism. 

THE ''entente" idea SUPPLANTING THE IDEA OP 
CONFEDEEATION 

Everything, indeed, portends in Latin American a dupli- 
cation of European conditions, with notions of strongly 
marked individuality, and the necessity for evolving some 
form of "balance of power." The age of alliance and 
ententes has already dawned in Latin America, because 
the republics have developed into genuine nations. Such 
confederations as the Central American Union are ana- 
chronistic if construed under the old meaning of "federa- 
tion" or "confederation" : but as an entente among nations, 
the Central American Union may thrive. If it has really 
been projected as an ordinary "confederation," it is fore- 
doomed, like previous similar combinations, to failure. 

The rise of nationalism in Latin America is one of the 
most significant political and social phenomena of this 
present-day modern world, and deserves much closer study 
than has as yet been accorded to it. 

"As to what may happen," observes Viscount Bryce in 
concluding his chapter on "The Rise of New Nations" in 
South America, "when one or two of the South American 
countries have reached the population and wealth of France 
or Italy, it is vain to speculate. Those who live to see 
that day will see a world wholly unlike ours. ' ' 

Speculation on this score is, nevertheless, highly allur- 
ing, particularly in view of the certainty that not one or 
two, but at least a dozen nations with the population and 
wealth of France and Italy will one day, through natural 
growth alone, share the Western Hemisphere with the 
United States. Brazil already has a population of 30,000,- 
000 people as compared with the 41,500,000 of France and 
the 40,000,000 of Italy. 



CHAPTER IX 

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Political stability, peace, increasing affluence, the removal 
of isolation, and the growth of a national conseionsness 
have so modified our national characteristics that we can 
now read with equanimity the criticism of Harriet Mar- 
tineau, Mrs. Trollope, Captain Basil Hall, Dickens, or 
Captain Marryat. 

EARLY EUROPEAN CRrTICISM 

Returning home [relates Mr. John Graham Brooks in that 
delectable volume, As Others See Us, which every American and 
every visitor to America should read], I at once reread 
Dickens's ''American Notes" and the parts of "Martin Chuz- 
zlewit" which refer to the United States. I had forgotten 
the lively resentment roused by their first reading. What had 
happened that thirty years later the smart of his grossest 
caricatures had utterly disappeared? It was partly because 
one recognized so much truth in the picture. 

The critic of Latin American social and personal habits 
may well reflect on the state of our customs and manners 
as they appeared to English, French, and German observers 
down to a recent date before condemning too sweepingly 
the Latin American customs and manners which irritate 
him; and the Latin American may peruse with tranquil 
philosophy strictures on his countries which time and 
acquaintance will quickly modify. Already the tone of 
American travelers and observers is changing for the 
better. 

In an illuminating chapter on * ' Certain South American 
Traits," Professor Hiram Bingham, in Across South 
America, compares many of the every-day habits of Latin 
Americans with those of our social customs and practices 
which were satirized by Dickens something over seventy^ 
five years ago : 

204 



Social Development 205 

Although it is true that the historical and geographical back- 
ground of the South Americans is radically different from 
ours, it is also true that they have many social and superficial 
characteristics very like those which European travellers found 
in the United States fifty years ago. The period of time is 
not accidental. The South American Republics secured their 
independence nearly fifty years later than we did. Moreover, 
they have been hampered in their advancement by natural diffi- 
culties and racial antipathies much more than we have. Al- 
though the conditions of life in the United States, as depicted 
by foreign critics seventy-five years after the battle of York- 
town, were decidedly worse than the conditions of life seventy- 
five j^ears after the battle of Ayacucho, the resemblances be- 
tween the faults that were found with us fifty years ago and 
those that are noticeable among the South Americans of to-day, 
are too striking to be merely coincidences. It is surely not 
for us to say that there is anything inherently wrong with 
our Southern neighbors if their shortcomings are such as we 
ourselves had not long ago, and possibly have to-day. 

Our habits were undoubtedly what Dickens reported, 
but they were not our only habits nor our best ones. 

In the new and pioneer surroundings which Dickens 
described, our table-manners most certainly left much to 
be desired. That any good came to Englishmen or to 
ourselves from the humorous and not altogether kindly 
portrayal of the way we ate, of what we ate, of how we 
handled our knives, of what our social etiquette in general 
was, may seriously be questioned. Dickens wrote to batten 
the pride of his countrymen, to put us in our place, and 
to simulate the impartial observer of strange lower races. 
Not far different in purpose are the caustic American 
criticisms of Latin American manners and mannerisms. 
But they lead to nothing — except animosity. They are not 
valuable contributions to sociology, nor are they usually 
even humorous. 

A much more profitable study is that which concerns 
itself with the broader social and cultural movements 
inevitably altering individual and group customs and man- 
ners. The progressive development of antiseptic measures 
has done more to refine our manners than any comments 
by foreign or native cavilers, and the unfolding of the 
arts and the teachings of the schools have made intolerable 



206 Social Development 

the idiosyncrasies of nations wholly immersed in the be- 
ginnings in the acquisition of the means of subsistence. 

Judged by our highest standards, the ways of many of 
our immigrants, laborers, farmers, and negroes must seem 
deplorable: but those ways are being constantly improved 
by forces outside the homes and beyond the personal 
initiative of the lower strata of our society. The same 
thing is true in Latin America. So long as the upper and 
the lower castes remained separated by a world of tradition, 
the difference in habits was striking, and sometimes shock- 
ing. The new era of industrial, educational, and cultural 
advancement is, however, effectually raising the standard of 
living of the less fortunate members of society and slowly, 
yet perceptibly, eliminating those crude public mannerisms 
which prove offensive to fastidious tourists. 

The basic elements of Latin American character are such 
as to preserve it from gross vulgarity. It is inherently 
sociable and imitative, and abnormally sensitive to criti- 
cism. The individual does not often dare to go counter to 
established good usage. The desire to keep up appearances 
is universal. As soon as changes in customs are sanctioned 
by that respectable, anonymous segment of society which 
decrees what is socially right or wrong, their acceptance 
at large is assured. 

FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON LATIN AMERICAN SOCIAL USAGE 

The makers of customs and manners, once entirely under 
the sway of Spanish ideals, are now looking to France, 
England, and the United States for social guidance. 
French art, feminine fashions, mental concepts, and, to a 
certain degree, social usage, hold a dictatorial position in 
most of the republics. In men's attire, sports, industrial 
or commercial equipment or forms, and, here and there, 
architectural arrangements, England and the United States 
are the more recent arbiters, though, of course, the style 
in houses is predominantly of the old Spanish type, with 
the French structure serving as the model in such cities 
as Buenos Aires and Eio de Janeiro. In many cities, the 
cuisine is French, and in many commercial houses, the 



Social Development 207 

business practice is English or American. Advanced or 
"radical" ideas are introduced by foreigners from Europe, 
with an especially noticeable influence in the industrial 
centers. The progressive social movements of Latin 
America originate either in Europe or the United States. 

Such facts as these point to an inevitable alteration in 
customs and manners. It is possible to see foreign habits 
visibly attaching themselves to traditional native habits 
and gradually obliterating them. The fondness for foot- 
ball and the turf in the South has already driven out bull- 
fights and is sharing the honors with the chasse a la femme 
in the minds of Latin American adolescents. Italian, Ger- 
man, and Eussian laboriousness have changed the former 
leisurely, sociable life of Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. 
Instead of putting off all personal activity until manana 
the modern Porteno or inhabitant of Buenos Aires, and the 
modern Paulista hustle like Americans, forget some of the 
age-old street courtesies, and reveal themselves in a new 
light as frenzied seekers after Mammon. 

It will, to be sure, be a great pity if the Latin American 
loses in the transition to modern ways that Latin polite- 
ness which to us seems excessive and somewhat hypocritical. 
His courteous address is almost always to be preferred to 
our brusqueness and apparently frank, but often deceptive, 
directness. There is no particular virtue in manners 
stripped of gentility and urbanity. The Latin American 
verbiage may signify no more than our curtness, and his 
eeremoniousness may be no more cordial than our blunt- 
ness : but they do, however, probably signify as much. 

Any American who has lived long in Latin America 
comes to have a warm spot in his heart for the courtly 
manners which forbid mockery of the execrable Spanish 
so frequently assaulting Latin American ears — a broken 
language which, if duplicated in Anglo-Saxon countries, 
excites guffaws and crude ridicule — and for the considera- 
tion which requires that the head shall be uncovered when 
a funeral procession passes. The early age at which boys 
and girls assume the dignity and the savoir-faire of their 
elders is not to be deplored nor regarded as shallow. The 



208 Social Development 

long childhood and boisterous ways of the average Amer- 
ican boy and girl, while suggestive, perhaps, of exuberant 
animal spirits and a normal development toward an age of 
reason, are not always the most highly pleasant feature of 
our social life. If the Latin Americans appear to make 
their young people prematurely old, we on the other hand 
tend to keep our adolescents needlessly noisy and childlike : 
and they are no more priggish in their point of view than 
we are in ours. 

Surveying the Latin American social, spiritual, and 
mental characteristics impartially, we find, in fact, that 
they are not in any fundamental detail different from the 
common characteristics of any of the Latin races of Europe, 
the French, for example. 

In spite of the long connection with the Eoman Catholic 
Church and in spite of the position of that church as the 
official representative of the national religion, tolerance 
of creed is as general and as sincere in Latin America as 
in the United States or England. The Protestant churches 
in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico are as well protected 
and as little disturbed as they are in France. Racial 
tolerance, too, is treated as in France : and though the color 
line is drawn in some of the upper circles much more 
rigidly than we have any conception of, the attitude toward 
the negro is, on the whole, of the French type, and not at 
all the sentiment of repugnance and hostility usually 
exhibited in the United States. Notwithstanding the lack 
of discrimination against the negro, and perhaps because 
of it, the major crimes such as rape, for which the negroes 
are mainly responsible in the United States, are practically 
unknown in Latin America. In any case, whether that 
racial tolerance is commendable or not, Latin America has 
thus far avoided a negro problem in the north, and can- 
not have any in the south because of the almost total 
absence of the negro. 

On the more positive side, too, the Latin American 
character has many affiliations with the character of the 
Latin races of Europe. It is artistic to a pronounced 
degree, free from intellectual dogmatism, and naturally 



Social Development W9 

well-bred. This does not mean, of course, that the Latin 
Americans are any less superstitious than the rest of man- 
kind, or intellectually superior, or kinder or better at heart. 
Travelers have brought back enough instances of their 
peculiar and unattractive traditions, their slowness to join 
the forces of progress, and the discords in their architec- 
ture, dress, and adornments to dispel any such notion. But 
comparing like strata and like environments, it would be 
unjust to refuse to recognize that the Latin American tem- 
perament, customs, and manners are identical with the 
French, Italian, or Spanish. The wealthier, educated 
classes have the European Latin culture and charm, and 
the working people that quietness of bearing and that 
naturally simple and equable philosophy which mark the 
Latin working people of Europe. 

PHYSICAL CULTURE AND ATHLETICS 

Among the newer influences which are bringing a breath 
of fresh air into Latin American community life and dis- 
sipating the staleness of traditional indoor diversions, none 
offers more positive benefits than calisthenics in the schools, 
athletics, or sports in general. 

England and the United States, from whom the fondness 
for athletics is taken, are thus remodeling in one most 
important direction the scheme of Latin American exist- 
ence. The growing generation in several of the Latin 
American republics is thereby divesting itself of its less 
useful antiquated Latinity and acquiring a taste for phys- 
ical energy which has not been a distinguishing trait of 
previous generations. It is substituting an outdoor excite- 
ment for indoor excitement. 

Some writers explain that the love for gambling, which 
has always been one of the plagues of Latin America, is 
traceable chiefly to the instincts of the aboriginal Indians, 
as are alcoholism and petty thievery. The southern 
European, who constitutes the largest element in immigra- 
tion, is represented as naturally abstemious and, though 
given to gambling, not dominated, like the Indians, by an 



^10 Social Development 

unreasoning passion for it. The truth is probably to be 
found between the two extremes. 

That the Indian has never learned self-control is 
undoubted: but it is also certain that the southern 
European, even at home, is not nearly as sober as conven- 
tional opinion paints him. Zola's L'Assommoir is a faith- 
ful description of the dregs of society in Paris, and the 
dramshop and the Americanized bar, if not of long stand- 
ing in France, Italy, and Spain, have of late years become 
recognized institutions. Moreover, the evil influence of 
the brandy and soda of the English should not be over- 
looked. The gambling propensities, too, of the southern 
Europeans are as highly developed as are those of the 
Indians, and were not acquired by contamination. It is, 
in fact, only in the countries with a large Indian popula- 
tion, such as Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, that the inclination 
for heavy gambling and drinking may be ascribed to the 
Indians, and then, only in the rural districts. In the cities, 
those failings have resulted almost entirely from the prac- 
tices of Europeans. 

The governmental protection given to the lotteries, by 
which many American visitors are scandalized, is simply 
an adoption of a European custom : and such ' ' plunging ' ' 
as the betting of between $25,000,000 and $30,000,000 
annually on horse-racing in Buenos Aires is the consequence 
of a distinctly European fever for excitement and "easy 
money, ' ' comparable with the giddy speculation in land in 
Argentina. 

The Indian, in truth, has had as little to do with the 
ruling passions of the white man in Latin America as in 
North America. 

Public and private agencies are actively engaged in 
breaking down these sedentary, enervating, and impoverish- 
ing habits. Physical culture has become one of the fixed 
requirements of the school system in every Latin American 
country. In the Caribbean republics, base-ball, stimulated 
by its popularity in the United States and by the support 
of the teachers, has almost become the national sport. In 
the southern republics, the English game of football ii 



Social Development 211 

played with enthusiasm, and the results chronicled daily 
in the newspapers. Target-practice, bicycling, and boating 
are common. The boat-clubs on the Kio Tigre, near Bueno* 
Aires, are numerous, are generally composed of members 
of the same nationality, and in some cases are of unusual 
size, the British rowing club being considered one of the 
largest, if not the largest, organization of the kind in the 
world. The international athletic tournaments of Latin 
America have become important social events. The Fourth 
South American Championship Athletic Contest, held in 
Santiago, Chile, in April, 1920, aroused great public in- 
terest, and resulted in the award of first place to Chile, 
second place to Uruguay, and third place to Argentina. 

Apropos of the Central American Olympic Games, held 
in 1921 in Guatemala, the Diario del Comercio, one of the 
newspapers of San Jose, Costa Eica, comments as follows : 

Sports are daily assuming larger proportions. Baseball, foot- 
ball, tennis, golf, boxing, and many others have fervent de- 
votees, among whom figure the most distinguished personages 
in the political, social, and financial world. The Central Ameri- 
can people is becoming thoroughly convinced of the great value 
of physical culture and of the high place which it occupies 
in the development of nations. 

The governments of the southern countries of South 
America, especially, appear anxious to encourage outdoor 
sport as an imiocent outlet for the animal spirits of the 
young. 

In 1920 the municipality of Buenos Aires made over 
to the Mariano Moreno National College an extensive 
athletic field, to be provided with the most modern equip- 
ment and ample bathing facilities : and the State Congress 
of Sao Paulo now has under consideration a petition for 
the construction of an amusement center in the city of 
Sao Paulo, which is to include pavilions and bathrooms 
for sea-baths — ^the water for which will be piped from 
Santos— and a large field for athletic events. The school 
authorities of Peru hold physical tests of school children 
in running, jumping, and chinning, and in one of these, 
according to Professor Edward A. Ross, made on 1500 



212 Social Development 

children of Lima, the comparative race performance was 
as follows: negroes 50, whites 35, cholos (mestizos) 28, 
Indians 14. 

Industrial concerns, such as the Guggenheim Company, 
now consider it a part of their duty to maintain play- 
grounds, recreation centers, and supervisors of physical 
education for their employees and the children of the lat- 
ter ; wealthy individuals donate prizes for athletic prowess ; 
the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A., as is to be expected, 
make athletics an important item in their programmes; 
and the boy-scout movement has spread all over Latin 
America. The intense interest in automobiling and aviation 
is likewise a strong contributing factor in carrying to the 
Latin Americans the call of the great out-doors and the 
joy of physical exercise. 

In the course of a few generations, the physical results 
of sHich cooperation by public and private agencies should 
become visible even to the casual onlooker. That beneficial 
social changes will ensue as a logical consequence goes 
without saying. 

In all such movements, the outstanding and important 
fact is that they are becoming socialized. Individuals have 
always had their favorite diversions, but there has been 
no unified endeavor to inculcate the habit of wholesome 
physical exercise in the social classes which need it most. 
Even in sanitation and personal hygiene, the principle of 
laissez-faire has predominated to a deplorable degree. 

NEW CONCEPTION OF SANITATION 

The veritable army of physicians — of whom there are 
over 2500 in Buenos Aires alone, 400 in Montevideo, 100 
in Caracas, about 1000 in Mexico City, and nearly 3000 
in the island of Cuba — and the excellent and surprisingly 
numerous hospitals and clinics, equal to the best in any 
other part of the world, have carried on their healing 
labors time out of mind in the most efficient manner, but 
with regard principally for the cases actually in hand, 
and not in the broader, more modern sense of public 
i§urvey, prevention, and eradication. To-day, the neces- 



Social Development 213 

sary connection between the medical profession and the 
public authorities has been established, and public health 
projects have been undertaken through concerted action 
and in many instances already brought to successful com- 
pletion. 

At the present time, Cuba, as the following table demon- 
strates, ranks as the most healthful country in the world : 

Country Deaths per thousand 

Cuba 12.54 

Australia 12.60 

Uruguay 13.40 

United States 15.00 

England 17.70 

S-pain 29.70 

Unable, until the American occupation, to cope with iti 
perennial scourges, in spite of its expert physicians, trained 
in the best schools of Europe and the United States, and 
its splendid hospitals, clinics, and sanatoriums, Cuba then 
learned what might be accomplished by genuine public 
cooperation, and has taken the lesson to heart. It owes 
its superior standing in health to the socializing sanitary 
methods of the United States, though its debt to one of 
its own physicians, Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay, the discoverer 
of the cause of yellow fever, should never be forgotten. 

What Cuba has done for the prevention of yellow fever, 
tuberculosis, and other ravaging diseases, has since been 
duplicated in several Latin American republics, sometimes, 
as at Guayaquil, Ecuador, with the assistance of the Rocke- 
feller Foundation, and at other times, as at Rio de Janeiro, 
through the efforts of their own medical men and scientists. 

Besides the admirable medical work in Latin America 
done under ordinary conditions, which has been described 
in some detail and heartily praised by Dr. William J. 
Mayo after a personal inspection, the general tendency to 
consider sanitary and hygienic conditions as subjects of 
public interest and concern deserves special attention. It 
marks clearly the break between the old, individualistic 
viewpoint and the modern, social attitude, and indicates 



214 Social Development 

the effect of health regulations on personal habits and social 
conduct. 

The ports of the West Coast and Brazil, which have 
always borne a bad reputation among travelers and sea- 
men because of the ravages of yellow fever, are now per- 
fectly safe, thanks to the stringent measures adopted and 
enforced with regard to stagnant water. In Chile 3,000,000 
pesos (at normal exchange $.3650) have been voted recently 
for sanitary improvements in the cities, particularly in 
the north. The Department of Health of Paraguay has 
started a campaign against the hook-worm, with which a 
large percentage of the suburban population is infected, 
and has promulgated rules of personal hygiene in the 
endeavor to diminish the number of deaths, now amount- 
ing to 20 per cent, due to this disease. The tropical 
diseases of Brazil were vigorously combated by a group 
of bacteriologists under the guidance of the celebrated Dr. 
Oswaldo Cruz, during his lifetime, and the attack is being 
carried forward by his assistants, an essential feature of 
the work consisting in the dissemination of knowledge con- 
cerning the ailments under treatment. An executive decree 
of February 18, 1921, prohibiting the importation of 
narcotics in Chile except for medicinal and pharmaceutical 
purposes, constitutes a vigorous attempt to control the drug 
habit which, as in our metropolitan cities, has left indelible 
marks of physical and mental deterioration on the large 
numbers of "addicts." 

In these and many other ways, such as the organization 
of the Latin American branches of the Red Cross, sanitary 
and dental conferences, the increasing employment of 
American nurses and the consequent acceptance of Amer- 
ican methods in Peru, Argentina, Central America, and 
elsewhere, the teaching of hygiene in the schools and by 
means of public lectures and demonstrations, iand the 
appointment of specialists to investigate the progress made 
in public sanitation and hygiene in the United States and 
the different European countries, the progressive Latin 
America of to-day is becoming differentiated from the 



Social Development 215 

proverbial Latin America and is fully entitled to the words 
of commendation uttered by M. Clemenceau : 

Argentine officials, like their French brethren, are both fallible 
and zealous, and while it was impossible that in so many visits 
there should be no ground for criticism, yet I am anxious to 
declare publicly how admirably kept were the schools of what- 
ever degree, the hospitals, asylums, refuges, and prisons; they 
were not only adapted to all the requirements of therapeutics^ 
hygiene, and the canons of modern European science, but they 
slaowed a genuine effort to do better than the best. I should 
have been glad to have there some of those who make a 
practice of disdaining these countries that started very long 
after us, but that can already give us some salutary lessons 
through institutions such as those I have named, which are 
here brought to a pitch of perfection that is in many cases 
unknown with us. 

SOCIAL, "movements" 

The testimony of shrewd observers like M. Clemenceau 
as to social improvement in Latin America is uncommonly 
valuable. The impression that practically nothing of the 
kind really exists is so often taken for granted that evi- 
dence to the contrary by noted men and women is of inter- 
national educational import. Even friendly students of 
Latin America are sometimes mistaken, and the statement 
of Mr. Clayton S. Cooper that 

South America, is not a region known for its social move- 
ments, and apart from what is done by the charities of the 
Catholic Church, the country as a whole is poor in activities 
aimed at the betterment of society as such. In this also the 
South American is as unlike the North American with his 
multitudinous "causes" and movements for social betterment, 
as he is like the Oriental in his emphasis upon individualism 
and family devotion, 

needs restriction. 

Indeed, what is peculiarly characteristic of the Latin 
America of the twentieth century is that it is taking up 
every foreign "cause" and movement with avidity, par- 
ticularly in the South and on the West Coast, and giving 
them an enthusiastic trial. In some cases, exceedingly 
original experiments of a social nature have been made in 



216 Social Development 

Latin America which will undoubtedly be tried in other 
countries. 

One of these innovations is the socialization of newspaper 
plants, as instanced in the multifarious activities carried 
on in the building of La Prensa, the Buenos Aires daily. 
Another is the furnishing of the correct time each evening 
in Montevideo by the dimming of all the electric lights 
in the city for a brief moment, followed by the flash back 
to normal brilliancy. Everybody, whether at home, on the 
streets, in the tramcars, or in the restaurants thus gets 
absolutely correct time once a day, and the tremendous 
variations in time which are generally found in any city 
are simply and easily done away with. It is possible, too, 
that an interesting feature noted by Dr. William J. Mayo 
in one of the hospitals of Montevideo may have a wider 
social application than has so far been given to it. In 
this hospital, **to prevent flies from entering the operating 
rooms, persons pass from the main corridor through a 
small anteroom with blue glass ceiling, sides, and door. 
It has been demonstrated that flies will not pass through 
this blue-lighted space." 

PROHIBITION IN LATIN AMERICA 

The temperance movement is one of the live social issues 
in many Latin American countries. It preoccupies the 
minds of government officials, educators, public-spirited 
citizens, and businessmen. 

In Peru the means taken to combat alcoholism are 
directed primarily at the Indian, who appears totally in- 
capable of resisting the allurement of strong drink — the 
only panacea easily obtainable for the assuagement of an 
existence sometimes hard and grinding and generally in- 
credibly monotonous. Private companies have made a 
special study of the problems and introduced many of the 
remedial measures employed in the United States. The 
Grace Company has, on one of its great sugar estates, at 
Cartavia, provided a church, a schoolhouse, and a motion 
picture theater not merely for the resulting spiritual and 
intellectual benefits, but quite as much for the opposition 



Social Development 217 

offered by these institutions to the natives' propensity for 
spending their spare time at the shops where chicha is sold : 
and the returns in sobriety have amply repaid the finan- 
cial investment. 

Since 1913 the teaching of the evil effects of alcoholic 
drink has been obligatory in the public schools of Peru, 
following a campaign dating back to 1896, and fomented 
by at least three influential societies, the League for Anti- 
Alcoholic Propaganda, the National Temperance League, 
founded by the Rev. Ruperto Algorta, and the Children's 
League of Temperance. Finding that the government tax 
on liquor, first imposed in 1885, has scarcely diminished 
the consumption of alcoholic beverages and simply in- 
creased "bootlegging" and other forms of evasion, the 
temperance forces have finally, after years of pressure, 
succeeded in having a law passed which prohibits the sale 
of alcoholic drink on Saturdays and Sundays, the period 
of greatest temptation to the Indians, and, according to 
recent reports, has been extended so as to make illegal 
the use of beverages containing even a low percentage of 
alcohol. Bolivia, likewise, has promulgated a law for the 
closing of saloons on Sundays, with summary treatment 
for offenders: and a constitutional amendment has been 
presented to the Congress of Colombia for restriction in 
the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. 

The temperance question in Chile is an even more serious 
matter than in the other republics. There, it is the white 
man, as well as the descendants of the Indians, who must 
be protected against himself: and the power of the grape- 
growers has been so strong as to resist all attempts to 
disrupt the liquor traffic. Various organizations are now 
at work arousing a spirit of protest against the most 
flagrant abuses connected with intemperance, and some 
of the large industrial firms, including the Braden Copper 
Company, are enforcing prohibition among their employees. 
The leader in the temperance cause is Don Carlos 
Fernandez Peiia, whose pioneer activities have had much 
to do with the creation of the Anti-Alcoholic League and 
the Commission of Temperance and Social Study. The 



218 Social Development 

aid of the women of Chile has been invoked as the most 
potent instrumentality for controlling what has developed 
into a national vice. 

Whether rigid prohibition can ever be attained in Chile 
may be a matter of debate: but that some limitations will 
be placed on alcoholism, particularly among the working 
classes, can hardly be disputed. A law is now before the 
Chilean Congress for the establishment of "dry zones" in 
the industrial districts, and the recent riots in the Lota 
coal fields, said to be due almost entirely to liquor, will 
unquestionably aid in the passage of the projected bill. 
The industrial ambitions of Chile, if nothing else, will 
bring about some scheme of regulation, for without steady 
labor, industrial development runs too many hazards. We 
may expect, in fact, the same sharp conflict between the 
vineyardists and the vested liquor interests and the pro- 
prietors of manufacturing and other industrial establish- 
ments as arose between the liquor purveyors and the owners 
of industrial plants in the United States. The first honors 
in our battle for prohibition belong without question to 
the women of our country : but the credit belonging to our 
"captains of industry," whether because of their modesty 
or their diplomacy, has never been acknowledged in a 
sufficiently public manner. 

Few of the Latin American countries, from Mexico south- 
ward, are without prohibition societies and leaders. The 
movement is naturally sponsored mainly by the women of 
the educated classes, but counts among its faithful 
adherents men of the most prominent positions in the 
political, social, and intellectual life of the republics. The 
desire to save from extinction the native races which have 
been slaves to alcohol since the days of the Conquest has 
been the principal motive of the temperance propaganda 
in many of the countries: in others, where the Indian 
population is small, the endeavor is made to stem the 
brutalization of the working classes, which, because of the 
racial mixture in the large cities and the presence of so 
many Europeans without family connections, have taken 



Social Development 219 

to drink much more generally than should be supposed 
possible for southern Europeans. 

For the Indians and mestizos of Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, 
Ecuador, and Chile, pulque, chicha, and their congeners 
have been an undeniable curse, and nobody can fail to 
sympathize with the attempts made to lessen the serious- 
ness of that phase of the liquor problem, whatever may 
be his individual opinions about the merits of prohibition 
in general. The destruction caused by alcohol would, as 
the Rev. Dr. Zahm suggests, be much more formidable if 
a large part of South America had not been preserved 
from its debasing influence by the popularity of mate 
(Paraguay tea) as a stimulating beverage. 

As in the campaign against intoxicants, so in other social- 
izing enterprises, the quiet but penetrating influence of 
the United States is manifest. The northern half of Latin 
America, of course, because of its proximity to the United 
States, quickly absorbs, by a species of social osmosis, the 
fluid contents of all the processes of amelioration, select- 
ing those elements best adapted to its own special environ- 
ment. The material contact is so close that absorption is 
almost as inevitable as a law of nature. 

But in the southern half of Latin America, also, in spite 
of the local attitude toward the Monroe Doctrine and the 
feeling of suspicion kept alive by national sensitiveness 
and the insinuations of European political and industrial 
interests, American social measures, like American scien- 
tific and commercial improvements, find a ready acceptance 
and the flattery of imitation. 

The benefits resulting from our conferences of mayors 
and governors have been appreciated in Peru, where a 
Congress of the mayors of the country is to be held during 
the centennial celebration. Our study of housing condi- 
tions, together with the investigations proceeding in 
England and Germany, has in all probability inspired the 
First Habitation Congress which met in Buenos Aires in 
September, 1920, and considered the relief of the housing 
problem, new legislation concerning dwellings, the record- 
ing of leases, local rent tariffs, the inspection of dwellings, 



220 Social Development 

financial measures tending to facilitate the construction 
of buildings, and the betterment of rural homes. 

HOUSING AND PRISON REFORM 

Improvements, too, are frequently made on the ideas 
brought in from abroad. Thus, the working population 
of the Bangu weaving mills at Rio de Janeiro has been 
provided with pretty chalets of the most perfect sanitary 
construction; the employees of the Fray Bentos factory 
of beef extract live in a model city in which agreeable 
homes, recreation grounds, and medical inspection are pro- 
vided by the company ; the miners and administrative force 
of the Chuquicamata plant, Chile, enjoy living quarters 
and social conveniences not excelled in our most "up-to- 
date" industrial towns; and the Widows' Asylum of 
Buenos Aires, arranged in a series of small apartments, 
is rented at an extremely low figure, and contains in the 
courtyard, as an additional convenience, an open-air com- 
munity kitchen. The proper protection of minors, prison 
reform — concerning which the governor of the Central 
Prison of Buenos Aires remarked to M. Clemenceau, "I 
have seen most of the prisons of Europe. Do you notice 
amongst our inmates that expression of the tracked beast 
which you find on all your prisoners? No. Our inmates 
have one idea only — to begin life again and to prepare, this 
time, for success" — the founding of agricultural penal 
colonies, such as that of ''Ulloa" in Colombia, the Sunday 
''blue laws" recently enacted in Bolivia, typify social 
movements running parallel to our own, prosecuted with 
as much earnestness, and frequently an improvement on 
our methods and results. 

Nor are our own institutions, carried bodily to Latin 
America, to be judged insignificant factors in the social 
evolution of the various republics. 

Our missionary organizations and those of Europe have 
their representatives everywhere. In 1911, for example, 
there were 19 such societies in Argentina, 199 foreign 
missionaries, 189 ordained and unordained native workers, 
and 4800 communicants; in Chile 6 societies, 97 foreign 



v> - Social Development 221 

missionaries, 124 native workers, and 5616 communicants; 
in Brazil 19 societies, 244 foreign missionaries, 364 native 
workers, and 28,093 communicants. The religious instruc- 
tion given by these agencies is scarcely more important 
than the educational and social benefits conferred by them : 
and it may well be said that the torch which they bear 
is not simply that of Christianity, but that of modern 
Western civilization. The missionary hospitals, which form 
one of the most humanitarian adjuncts of the missionary 
settlements, bring new conceptions of sanitation and 
hygiene into the towns and homes of Latin America. 

SALVATION ARMY, THE Y. M. C. A., AND THE Y. W. C. A. IN 
LATIN AMERICA 

Salvation Army stations are located in several of the 
populous centers, and, as at Valparaiso, Chile, manage 
popular restaurants for the purpose of furnishing meals 
at the lowest cost possible, and maintain homes for indigent 
men and women. The Y. M. C. A. and the Y. "W. C. A. 
are becoming as solidly established as in the United States. 
Rio de Janeiro subscribed last year $120,000 (477 contos 
de reis) toward a site and new headquarters for the local 
branch of the Y. M. C. A., which already has about 2000 
members, and will soon have more. The Y. W. C. A. of 
Buenos Aires is progressing so well that it has moved into 
a new building and is extending its services in all direc- 
tions, offering practical classes, setting up a cafeteria, pro- 
viding sleeping accommodations, assisting travelers, and 
seeking employment for applicants. 

Since, in harmony with the American or British genius, 
each institution erected abroad is nothing more than a 
transplantation of a home institution, or, even more truly, 
of a piece of the native land impregnated with American 
or British customs, manners, and methods, and not a new 
entity created out of the foreign environment in which 
it is placed, it follows that those who come in contact with 
the institution are infallibly Americanized or European- 
ized in the* course of time. The younger generation which 
frequents the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. cannot 



222 Social Development 

help imbibing a fondness for athletics, regular bathing, 
wholesome living, and decent speech, and in some measure 
introducing those tastes into its home and neighborhood 
circle. 

Fortunately, neither the Y. M. C. A. nor the Y. W. C. A. 
can be charged with political motives, such as are some- 
times — erroneously and unjustly, in the opinion of the 
present writer — attributed to the Pan American Union; 
and its progress is wholly dependent on the social services 
which it can render. 

Granted that these and similar social improvements and 
reforms are current in Latin America, grave doubts never- 
theless beset the investigator. How sincere are the states- 
men in their programmes? How capable are the people 
of conforming to new standards ? Is the talk of controlling 
the social vices, uplifting the poorer classes, protecting 
the children, ''cleaning up" in general mere oratory, or, 
what is just as bad, hallucination ? Is the pointed comment 
of Mr. J. O. P. Bland, an experienced English traveler 
with a style and a criticism of life which lift his Men, Man- 
ners and Morals in South America high above the great 
majority of works on Latin America, to be taken as gospel ? 

While the Legislature [of Uruguay, remarks Mr. Bland] with 
its noble head in the clouds and its hands (some of them, at all 
events) in the public till, produces model statutes concerning the 
eight-hour day, old age pensions, the repos hehdomadaire, com- 
pulsory education, and benefits' of all kinds for organised labour, 
the fundamental business of stimulating agricultural production, 
and of protecting the peon and the chacreros, producers of the 
nation's wealth, advances but seldom beyond the region of sterile 
academics and the appointment of ever-increasing inspectors, 
commissions and battening bureaucrats. 

Englishmen writing about Latin America, that immense 
field for British investments, are not wont to be so skeptical 
and blunt concerning Latin American idiosyncrasies. 

At first blush, an attitude of Voltairean doubt appears 
to be the only safe procedure for the unfamiliar way- 
farer in Latin American affairs. The social programmes, 
like the constitutions, of the Latin American republics 
seem too perfect, too complete. The reforms agreed to by 



Social Development 223 

the Constitutional Convention of Mexico, which met at 
Queretaro during December, 1916, and January, 1917, 
afford a beautiful illustration of the all-embracing charac- 
ter of some Latin American social movements. 

Under the terms of the constitutional reforms of 1917, 
numerous changes of the most vital consequence have been 
enacted in the social and political life of Mexico. 

Only Mexican citizens may acquire landed properties 
or secure mining concessions. Education is compulsory up 
to the age of 15 years. The church schools are abolished. 
Industrial companies situated at a distance from towns 
must maintain on their own grounds schools for the chil- 
dren of their employees. The large landed estates are to 
be subdivided, and purchasers are to be enabled to acquire 
land by long-term installments. All mineral resources be- 
long to the nation. No religious organization can hold 
title to landed or other property. Ministers other than 
native-born Mexicans cannot exercise their calling. The 
working-day shall be of eight hours duration, and there 
shall be one day of rest during the week. Children may 
not be employed for more than six hours a day. A 
minimum wage is fixed. The right to strike is recognized, 
but only after 10 days' notice has been given to the Com- 
mission of Conciliation and Arbitration. Free municipal 
employment bureaus are provided for. Compensation for 
accidents in industrial establishments is obligatory. The 
social welfare of the workingman must be looked after by 
the provision of sanitary living quarters, hospitals, com- 
munity centers, and abstention from the sale of liquors in 
buildings or on grounds devoted to recreation. 

The general public in the United States will quite 
naturally laugh at this idealistic programme. Not that 
any item in it is impossible of execution, however, for 
practically every one of the measures mentioned has been 
made an accomplished fact in the United States. But that 
Mexico, of all nations, should believe itself capable of effect- 
ing these far-reaching changes seems absolutely pre- 
posterous. The spoils system, in the minds of most Amer- 
icans, is too deep-rooted and the people too ignorant ever 



QM Social Development 

to permit even an approximation to the fulfillment of this 
really admirable and progressive social programme. 

Nevertheless, at least once in the history of Mexico, just 
such steps were taken to draw the country out of the 
slough of medievalism, and they were highly successful. 

During the thirty years' rule of Porfirio Diaz (1877- 
1880 and 1884r-1911), sanitation became an article of the 
political creed, the Valley of Mexico was drained, and 
plague-stricken towns were transformed into thriving, 
healthful cities. Industry was fostered, foreign investments 
encouraged, and the wonderful national resources opened 
up. Railroads multiplied. Mills were constructed. A 
strong police force for the cities and the rural districts 
was recruited and trained in discipline and efficiency. The 
Indians and mestizos, to whom Diaz was bound by ties 
of blood, became prominent in government and industry. 
Honesty of a high quality actually marked the operations 
of public servants, due to the modern system of accounting 
introduced by Diaz and to the responsibility placed on 
heads of departments. The public school attendance had 
risen from 160,000 in 1876 for schools of all classes to 
nearly 800,000 in 1907 for the public primary schools alone. 
Normal and higher schools were created in large numbers 
and in accordance with the most modern ideas. Mexico 
enjoyed an international respect which had never before 
been vouchsafed to it. The Diaz regime finally fell before 
the attacks of Madero, who demanded more radical social 
reforms, but it had proved over a long course of years 
that the supposedly impossible was possible under strong 
leadership. 

The improvements more recently contemplated are not 
inherently of such a nature as to preclude success, given 
adequate leadership or a genuine public opinion. Many 
of them have been translated into such thorough actualities 
that foreign interests, whose former advantages have been 
jeopardized by the national reforms, are viewing with 
considerable alarm the spread of these social tendencies, 
called progressive or radical, depending on the point of 
view of the speaker. 



Social Development 225 



THE TRANSITION FROM INDIVIDUALISM TO SOCIAL REGULATION 

The history of the assuredly stable governments in Latin 
America, such as those of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and 
Brazil has been, indeed, a steady transformation from indi- 
vidual, arbitrary power toward democracy and social ref- 
ormation. In those countries, the age of dictators is over. 
The real danger now is in the opposite extreme — demagogic 
democracy and radical socialism. 

The president of Uruguay has been elected by the direct 
vote of the people: the president of Argentina, by the 
radical elements of the population. Voting is both com- 
pulsory and secret in Argentina, and a fine is imposed for 
non-compliance with this civic duty. Labor and capital 
are opposed to each other in a way not understood by that 
old centaur, Madariaga, in the Four Horsemen of the 
Apocalypse. Where formerly the politicians and states- 
men of Uruguay paid scant heed to the wishes or needs 
of the workingman, now there is the greatest alacrity in 
insisting on the forty-eight hour week — a significant change 
of front. President Alfredo Gonzalez of Costa Eica sincerely 
tried to assign to the large landholders a more equitable 
share in the public burdens by a revised system of taxa- 
tion, and, of course, was ousted from his position by the 
still powerful conservatives. Each year sees a larger num- 
ber of popular representatives seated in most of the Latin 
American legislatures and a larger number of bills affect- 
ing the mass of the people introduced at legislative 
assemblies. 

To deny that social and political progress can thrive 
in Latin America is to arrogate wisdom to ourselves, to 
refuse to believe that earnest thinkers can exist below the 
Kio Grande, and to be blind to the vicissitudes to which 
some of our most cherished social measures are subject. 
On one of these points, the testimony of M. Clemenceau is 
again exceedingly valuable. Discussing the Pan American 
Congress which met at Buenos Aires during the Argentine 
centenary, he observes ; 



226 Social Development 

With the sole exception of Bolivia, every republic of South 
America sent a representative to the palace of the Congress to 
discuss their common interests — an imposing assembly, which in 
the dignity of its debates can bear com^Darison with any Upper 
Chamber of the Continent of Europe. For iny part, I sought 
in vain for one of those excitable natures, ever ripe for explo- 
sion — the fruit, according to tradition, of equatorial soil. I found 
only jurisconsults, historians, men of letters or of science, giving 
their opinions in courteous language, whose example might with 
advantage be followed by many an orator in the Old Continent. 

Some of our own social reforms, such as equal suffrage 
rights for negroes, liquor prohibition, the adjustment be- 
tween capital and labor, the enforcement of child-labor 
laws, pension provisions, are neither so universally nor so 
perfectly applied in the United States as to justify us in 
belittling the efforts of nations to whom independence has 
been known for less than a hundred years, and democracy 
not more than fifty. 

Before ridiculing the framing of beautiful, idealistic 
laws and regulations which seem impossible of accomplish- 
ment, it would not be out of place for us to glance at some 
of the thousands of laws and measures annually or 
biennially proposed in our State legislatures for the better- 
ment of society, and, fortunately, never getting any further 
than the paper they are written on or the wasteful debates 
to which they give rise. 

Eeal social progress, at best, is slow everywhere: but 
it is slower in agricultural districts than in urban centers. 
We may expect it to be reasonably rapid in Latin American 
cities and dilatory in the vast agricultural regions, which 
make up the greater part of Latin American territory. 



CHAPTER X 
PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT AND EDUCATION 

Under Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule, the advan- 
tages of a truly enlightened public seemed more than doubt- 
ful. The principle that a large proportion of the taxes 
of each community should be employed in eradicating 
ignorance and stimulating intellectual development was 
practically unknown. The cost of colonial administration 
was high, and the revenues collected through the ingenious 
and complicated system of taxes in vogue scarcely sufficed 
for local needs and for the share appertaining to the 
Spanish or Portuguese crown. The first centuries of 
Spanish and Portuguese domination in Latin America 
frankly constituted an age of exploitation of natural and 
human resources. 

Education was not, to be sure, entirely neglected. The 
Jesuits were indefatigable in their efforts to raise the native 
Indians from the low plane of ignorance and superstition 
on which most of them lived. They founded schools in 
the populated districts and in the isolated, remote spaces, 
taught, as in Paraguay, many of the accomplishments of 
civilization to their untutored wards, and, in America, as 
elsewhere, earned that reputation for superior skill in teach- 
ing which they still maintain in their admirable colleges 
not only of Brazil and other Latin American republics, 
but also of the United States. 

Yet neither the Jesuits nor the Church as a whole con- 
ceived of public enlightment in its multiple phases from 
the point of view which obtains to-day among most nations. 
The existence of a genuine public opinion and the prospect 
of the settlement of the fate of nations by an appeal to 
the public intelligence never entered their minds, nor could 
have done so at that time. They, and, to a higher degree 

227 



228 Public Enlightenment and Education 

than is usually admitted, the Government, felt it a moral 
and religious obligation to overcome the brutish character- 
istics of the Indians by some education and to try to 
fashion the natives into the semblance of civilized human 
beings : but for that work, the rudiments sufficed. 

HIGHER EDUCATION UNDER THE ANCIENT REGIME 

As was natural in an aristocratic age, the higher insti- 
tutions of learning long overshadowed in importance any- 
thing that was done for the common people. 

Eight universities had been established in Latin America 
before the foundation of Harvard College in 1636. Two 
of them, the University of San Pablo in Mexico and that 
of San Marcos in Lima, were created in 1551 and the 
University of Santo Domingo in 1558. Mexico, as the center 
of Spanish influence and culture, could pride itself on 
seven institutions of higher education by the end of the 
sixteenth century, in which chairs or schools of divinity, 
medicine, and surgery were included : and these institutions 
followed as their models the European universities of the 
day. 

The members of the upper classes of society, when unable 
or unwilling to send their children to the mother-country 
to complete their education, had good educational facilities 
of a general character at hand in the principal cities of 
the New World, though the course of study was, it is 
scarcely necessary to say, strongly marked by theological 
tendencies. 

Throughout the eighteenth century, the universities in- 
creased in number, but with little change in aims and ideals. 
The modern notion of the higher education made no per- 
ceptible progress until well into the first half of the nine- 
teenth century. Even in the smaller countries like Porto 
Rico, the more pretentious institutos and colegios multiplied 
at the expense of popular education, but were supported 
by the parents of the students. The children of poor 
parents had to depend on benevolent men and women, 
such as the celebrated cigar-maker and teacher, Rafael 
Cordero, for their instruction, and it was only towarcj 



Public Enlightenment and Education 229 

1880 that General Despujol formulated his plan of elemen- 
tary education, as the result of which 25,000 pupils were 
within a few years enjoying the benefits of public schools 
maintained by the municipalities. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION OF RECENT DATE 

That date (1880) corresponds nearly with the effective 
beginnings of common school education in Latin America. 
Practically no Latin American public school system goes 
back further than fifty years from the present time. What- 
ever has been accomplished is extremely recent: and so 
much has been accomplished that our traditional belief in 
the apathy of the Latin American character needs to be 
modified in one more direction. 

The causes of the delay in joining the modern educational 
world are many and include systematic neglect by the 
Spanish government, the unfavorable attitude of the 
Church toward purely secular education, a medieval con- 
ception of the social worth of the masses, economic and 
political conditions following independence, lack of means 
of communication and the consequent isolation, and the 
large Indian population in several republics slow to 
habituate itself to school training. 

The significant point is that the American and European 
regard for popular education has at length triumphed in 
Latin America and that the change is coincident with the 
entrance of most of the republics on a new era in com- 
mercial, industrial, political, and social evolution. 

The educational transformation is being achieved mainly 
through the application of the two great principles which 
impose equal duties on the state and the individual : namely, 
that education shall be free and that attendance at school 
shall be compulsory. These principles have been incor- 
porated into the laws of practically all the Latin American 
countries, though in a few, as in Colombia, primary educa- 
tion is free, but not obligatory. From our own early 
experience in enforcing the laws for compulsory attendance, 
we may assume that only in the most favored republics 
is the compulsory regulation applied with strictness and 



230 Public Enlightenment and Education 

that, perhaps, it would be almost impossible to carry out 
the law with rigor on account of topographical conditions 
and the agricultural pursuits of the majority of the in- 
habitants. The establishment and functioning of schools 
in cities offer little difficulty: in the rural districts any- 
where in the world they become a real problem. 

The development of education from the top downwards 
was the fundamental defect of all the Latin American 
republics — as it was in all the Latin countries of Europe, 
and indeed, of all the countries of the world — with the 
possible exception of Argentina, where much attention was 
paid to primary instruction from comparatively early days. 
Accompanying that vicious course was the perfectly 
natural tendency to concentrate all educational effort on 
the cities or larger towns, since the returns from a given 
expenditure of money could be more readily noticed, since 
some education was essential for persons exposed to foreign 
contact and living a community life requiring a knowledge 
of reading, writing, and simple arithmetical operations, 
and since the demand for education in the more densely 
populated centers is not easily denied. 

The growth of democracy in Latin America during the 
past fifty years and the example of the United States, 
England, France, and Germany have reversed the process 
of development, placing the foundation of public education 
among the people, applying to it the largest share of the 
money used for educational ends, and relegating the uni- 
versities to the position of a subsidiary branch, and not 
the main artery through which governmental educational 
effort is directed. 

Between 1894 and 1914, the primary school attendance 
in Argentina increased from 280,000 to 900,000. In 1918 
the Province of Buenos Aires alone had 1720 primary 
schools, with a total enrollment of 214,233 pupils, of whom 
113,790 were boys and 100,433 girls, and a corps of 5624 
teachers, 5148 of whom were women. The number of 
private schools in the Province was over 300, and the 
matriculation nearly 30,000. By the end of 1913, 318,000 
children were attending the primary public schools of 



Public Enlightenment and Education 231 

Chile, and 61,000, private schools of the same grade. 
Ecuador, in 1916, furnished elementary public instruction 
to 98,400 pupils; in 1917 Uruguay had about 100,000 in 
its public schools ; from 1876 to 1891, under President Diaz, 
the total school attendance of Mexico had risen from 160,- 
000 to 649,771; in three years (1916-1919), largely due 
to the interest taken in public education by the Military 
Government instituted by the United States, the public 
school enrollment of the Dominican Eepublic has grown 
from 18,000 to nearly 100,000 ; in 1916 the school attend- 
ance of Peru was close to 175,000. 

Considering the small population of most of the coun- 
tries mentioned, the brief period in which public education 
has acquired significance, and the difficulties which the 
spread of education must overcome in the vast agricultural 
regions of Latin America, the results obtained may be 
regarded as nothing short of remarkable, and exceedingly 
promising for the future. 

Travelers will continue, to be sure, to return with highly 
colored accounts of the benighted condition of the 
''natives," just as American businessmen, in utter 
ignorance of the facts, are deploring a great falling off 
in our trade with Latin America, whereas in reality it has, 
at least down to 1920, inclusive, actually increased both in 
exports and imports ; but the educational progress of Latin 
America will not on that account come to a halt, nor the 
fact that Argentina, for example, has during the past 
generation spent more per capita in the education of her 
children than any country in the world except Australia, 
as the Eev. Dr. Zahm points out, lose importance. 

EDUCATIONAL ZONES 

The educational field in Latin America may readily be 
divided into zones, according to the amount of progress 
achieved or realizable in the near future. 

Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay merit a rank not much 
below that of the more advanced countries of Europe or 
the United States, and above that of Spain, Pprtugal, 
Greece, and most of the Slavic countries. Near them may 



232 Public Enlightenment and Education 

be placed several Brazilian states, and in particular the 
State of Sao Paulo, though other states do not as yet fall 
within this first zone on account of the keen conflict be- 
tween States' rights and Federal control and the slower 
advancement of modern thought in the sparsely settled 
interior districts. The Caribbean republics, because of their 
proximity to the United States, form a second zone, in 
which Cuba and Costa Rica stand out educationally above 
Mexico, the other Central American and "West Indian coun- 
tries, Colombia, and Venezuela. The rest of South America 
constitutes a third zone of uneven character, depending 
on distance from the coast, extent of territory, and racial 
admixture. 

In all three zones, the influence of the educational system 
of the United States on the public schools is stronger than 
that of any other country, though the higher education 
generally patterns after the secondary schools and uni- 
versities of one or another of the European countries. 

The public school system of Argentina is a direct out- 
growth of contact with American institutions and Amer- 
ican educators. It was inaugurated by President Domingo 
Sarmiento, who, as the Argentine minister at Washington, 
became an enthusiastic partisan of the democratic nature 
of the American public school and, between 1868 and 1874, 
while chief magistrate of his own country, introduced the 
salient features of American instruction into Argentina. 
Sarmiento 's personal admiration for Horace Mann and 
his friendship with that great educator undoubtedly 
strengthened his belief in the American common school 
system. During his presidency, the foundation of public 
education in Argentina was laid, and the most important 
principles evolved. The changes made later have affected 
only details. 

Educational Progressiveness of Argentina 

As planned by Sarmiento and as carried out in subse- 
quent reforms, the school system of Argentina contains all 
the elements to which we are accustomed in the United 



Public Enlightenment and Education 233 

States, including primary, secondary, and normal schools 
and institutions for professional and technical studies. 
Education is compulsory between the ages of six and four- 
teen, free, and universal. All the common branches are 
taught, the texts are prepared by expert teachers and, 
wherever possible, emphasize the spirit of patriotism, the 
tone of the instruction given is liberal, and none of the 
experiments carried on ia foreign countries is refused a 
trial. A special endeavor is made to provide for the ade- 
quate instruction of defective and abnormal children, the 
children of immigrants, and weak children who need the 
benefits of the open air and more individual attention than 
can be allowed in the ordinary class-room. Elementary 
night-schools for adults and for working people are to be 
found in most of the industrial centers. Personal hygiene 
receives careful treatment, thrift is encouraged, campaigns 
are carried on against the use of intoxicating liquors. At 
the noon hour, each school child is given a glass of milk, 
and the practice has developed into a fixed tradition. 

All that remains to Argentina now is to extend the ad- 
vantages of public education to every illiterate person in 
the republic : and this it is doing with the same zeal that 
marks the educational policy of the United States. Its 
educational budget is heavy, the primary schools being 
maintained out of the provincial treasuries, with Federal 
aid, when necessary, its personnel well-trained and zealous, 
and its leaders, such as Dr. Ernesto Nelson, thoroughly 
conversant with the best educational theory and practice 
of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. 

The highest tribute paid to public education in Argen- 
tina is found in the readiness with which even the children 
of the higher classes attend the public schools. Though 
private schools are numerous, practically no feelings of 
invidious distinction militate against the public schools. 
Parents who prefer the private schools are moved by the 
same considerations which induce many parents in the 
United States to send their children to private institutions. 

Chile is proverbially known among the Latin American 
republics as the country most deeply imbued with aristo- 



234 Public Enlightenment and Education 

cratic preoccupations and most completely ruled by a 
powerful group of families which is in possession of the 
great landed estates and of many of the most important 
industries. A rigid sense of caste, the coherence of junk- 
erdom, and an unfailing bent toward centralization have 
kept Chile conservative and ''Tory" in spite of the efforts 
of an occasional president like Balmaceda to break down 
the walls of tradition and let in liberal political and re- 
ligious ideas. 

In educational affairs,, the customary Chilean traits of 
opposition to a genuinely democratic system — "customary 
traits" in the sense, of course, that they represent the 
inclinations of the dominant oligarchy — ^have often been 
commented upon. Mr. Robert E. Speer, representing con- 
ditions some years back (1912), declares that "The Chilean 
educational system in all its branches is national in scope 
and organization — that is to say, is maintained by the 
national treasury. No local taxes are levied for educational 
purposes, and the local authorities have no voice in the 
administration of or control over the system." Theoret- 
tically, this has been true in the past : but it has not been 
true in significant details of late. 

To-day, the provincial governments are providing nearly 
all the funds for public instruction, the budget passed by 
the Chilean Congress for the year 1915-16 carrying less 
than one per cent of the sum devoted to public education 
in that period. The local authorities, far from being mere 
figureheads, have, by the law promulgated August 26, 1920, 
been invested with the duty of fulfilling compliance with 
the terms of that law, which, by action of the Congress 
and the President, establishes compulsory primary instruc- 
tion in very definite terms and in a spirit of thoroughly 
modern liberalism. If consistently enforced, these regula- 
tions should soon put Chile beyond the stigma of having 
only two classes — the upper and middle educated class and 
the lower, uneducated class. Obviously, in any democratic 
country, there must be an educated lower class, also. 



Public Enlightenment and Education %S5 



CHANGING IDEALS IN CHILEAN EDUCATION 

Hitherto, primary instruction has been free, but not 
compulsory, in Chile. The law of 1920 prescribes that 
elementary education provided by the State and the 
municipalities shall be free; that all education, whether 
given in public or in private schools shall be compulsory 
up to the age of thirteen; that "minors who have reached 
the age of 13 without passing the first two grades of 
primary instruction must continue at school until after 
approval in the regular annual examinations, or up to the 
age of 15 years"; that poverty does not exempt minors 
from attending school; that no minors under 16 years of 
age shall be employed in the industries unless they have 
complied with the law of compulsory education; and that 
boards of education shall be established in each commune 
to enforce these and other measures decreed in behalf of 
public education. Coeducation, while not common in Chile 
above the first two grades of the primary school, tends to 
become the rule rather than the exception in the schools 
of higher instruction. 

The ambition to have a school system as good as that 
of its Spanish neighbors and similar in most respects to 
the educational organization of its admired and respected 
friend in the North, the United States, has led the central 
government of Brazil to take steps putting it sometimes at 
variance with the State governments and their strong sense 
of States' rights. 

Thus, in 1911, a Federal Board of Education was granted 
authority to establish elementary schools in the different 
states: and such action, though appearing to give the 
national government a power which does not constitu- 
tionally belong to it, is scarcely likely to be seriously con- 
tested in the States which have themselves been unable to 
provide sufficient educational facilities. 

The progressive States, such as Sao Paulo, show a most 
commendable eagerness to align themselves with the most 
wide-awake countries, and display unusual generosity in 
their educational budgets and their provisions for build- 



236 Public Enlightenment and Education 

ings, equipment, and teachers. Other states, which must 
lag behind for a time and can neither compel attendance 
nor make instruction free in all respects, may now coUnt 
on assistance from the national government, particularly 
in matters pertaining to agricultural and technical schools. 
As immigration increases and the force of the example set 
by the more advanced states acquires strength, these back- 
ward regions will indubitably approximate the educational 
ideals held by the leading states. 

In all large countries in which local autonomy is a recog- 
nized principle, great divergences are sure to be noted : but 
the attractive power of the most energetic and advanced 
districts inevitably raises the standards of the weaker dis- 
tricts. As the statistical charts prepared by the Russell 
Sage Foundation show, our southern states have, in almost 
every item of school progress, remained much below the 
efficiency of the northern and western states. The con- 
sciousness of this inferiority, aroused by comparative 
statistics, while not precisely palatable to southern citizens, 
has proved one of the keenest spurs to educational improve- 
ment in the South. Intersectional rivalry has been one 
of our most valuable instruments of progress and is likely 
to be particularly effective in countries of Spanish and 
Portuguese origin, where the feeling of regional patriotism 
runs high without the slightest need of stimulation. 

Situated between the United States, whose educational 
influence is extending southward with rapidity, and the 
advanced republics of South America, few of the inter- 
vening countries can long remain deaf to the voice of 
modern educational practice. Even the sleepiest and most 
doctrinaire among them are dropping the theoretical edu- 
cation of the past and laying stress on the practical phases 
of education developed in the United States and Europe. 

The typical course of study in Latin America closely 
approaches our own. The Three R's, history, geography, 
singing, drawing, the rudiments of the sciences, and 
calisthenics make up the curriculum. Uruguay emphasizes 
the inculcation of morality and requires of its public school 
children a knowledge of the Constitution of the republic. 



Public Enlightenment and Education 237 

Ecuador, likewise, believes in the teaching of morality and 
an acquaintanceship with the Constitution, and adds the 
domestic sciences and sewing for the girls. In Costa Rica 
the teaching of agriculture has been made an integral part 
of the curriculum of the rural schools, which are furnished 
with land and the necessary implements for practical work. 
Medical and dental inspection is a regular feature of the 
school work of Sao Paulo. The importance of sanitation 
has been strongly impressed on the school children of 
Guayaquil, Ecuador, through the successful campaign 
recently waged on yellow fever under the auspices of the 
Rockefeller Foundation, and the public feeling for a gen- 
eral "clean-up" was kept at a high pitch through the 
splendid cooperation offered by teachers and children alike. 
The Government of Guatemala had, before the war, made 
the study of English and French obligatory in the educa- 
tional centers, while in Brazil the Governor of Sao Paulo 
has this year (1921) recommended that the teaching of 
foreign languages in the public schools to children less 
than ten years of age be prohibited — a measure evidently 
inspired by the same notives which caused drastic action 
in the State of Nebraska against the teaching of foreign 
languages in any public school below the high school. 

Virtually every educational innovation which has been 
the subject of experiment in the United States and Europe 
finds its way into some of the Latin American schools. 

AN IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT IN MEXICO 

Influenced, perhaps, by the means used in the United 
States during the war to train soldiers rapidly and gen- 
erally in the practical use of French, the Mexican Govern- 
ment has lately carried on a campaign against illiteracy 
which contains several novel and valuable features. A 
corps of honorary teachers has been created by the National 
University on a volunteer basis to carry a knowledge of 
the two principal tests of literacy to the thousands of people 
who have thus far enjoyed no instruction whatsoever. In 
the course of four months, these teachers, now numbering 
2000 and serving the cause of education with a splendid 



238 Public Enlightenment and Education 

spirit of self-sacrifice, have taught over 10,000 illiterates 
the rudiments of reading and writing: and it is to be 
presumed that the efforts of the Government and of the 
volunteer instructing staff will be bent toward strengthen- 
ing the grasp of the written word so acquired by this 
large number, as well as to extend further the benefits 
of the system. 

Though practically no discussion of the experiment has 
taken place, it will readily be seen by educators that the 
plan is feasible, inexpensive, and efficient. The teaching 
of reading and writing, if prosecuted intensively, can in 
a remarkably short time convert a whole country from 
illiteracy to literacy: and the advance made can be con- 
firmed by the establishment of fixed local libraries, circulat- 
ing libraries under the supervision of the National Uni- 
versity or of the Government, and the dissemination of 
newspapers. 

Other strikingly progressive activities may be noted in 
the educational system of many of the Latin American 
republics, and especially in the field of agricultural and 
technical training. 

The most marked difference between our own educational 
programme and that of the Latin American countries re- 
sides in the treatment of secondary education. The tend- 
ency in the United States is to make high school education 
compulsory by raising the age-limit at which students may 
consider that they have completed their public school edu- 
cation. By requiring that pupils shall attend school until 
they have reached the age of 16, many states have made 
a high school education practically obligatory: and such 
secondary instruction is, of course, free. The spirit of the 
American nation is against closing the instructional period 
until pupils have reached a fair degree of mental maturity 
and have had an opportunity to secure the foundation of 
a liberal or a vocational education. That ideal has made 
no headway in Latin America, partly because the govern- 
ments believe that their oversight of public instruction must 
end with the completion of the primary school course, and 
partly because the organization of the secondary schools 



Public Enlightenment and Education 239 

implies a curriculum which, in the last two years, is 
equivalent to our university studies. 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA 

Secondary education in Latin America is, therefore, not 
completely democratic, since it is not entirely gratuitous 
and is restricted to students who are likely to enter the 
university. 

The colegio or liceo, as the secondary school is called, 
performs the function of the American high school in addi- 
tion to about the first two years in our universities. Its 
course of study requires six years, and is preparatory to 
the professional schools. In American school terms, this 
means that the colegio or liceo covers the ground of our 
high school and, besides, that of the junior colleges, which 
are becoming common in American universities. It rep- 
resents far more than the high school, and carries the 
student about half way through what corresponds to our 
college of arts and sciences, but with less emphasis, as yet, 
on the analytical laboratory method of the exact sciences, 
as pursued in our colleges, and greater emphasis on the 
humanities, logic, and some of the political and social 
sciences. The modern languages receive special attention, 
and the classical languages, almost none. For reasons of 
practicality and because of the tacit antagonism to Church 
instruction, the language of which has been Latin, the 
study of the ancient languages has long since dropped out 
of the curricula of most of the Latin American secondary 
schools: and the campaign recently waged against the 
classics in our high schools, as purely traditional subjects, 
surprises many Latin American educators, because the 
movement has been so tardy. 

A SUGGESTION CONCERNING THE ADMISSION OF LATIN 
AMERICAN STUDENTS TO OUR UNIVERSITIES 

The Latin American graduate of a good colegio or liceo 
should be entitled to enter the senior college of any Amer- 
ican university, with, perhaps, the proviso that he elect 
some laboratory work in addition to what he has done in 



240 Public Enlightenment and Education 

his own school. The narrow insistence with which most 
of our universities require that a foreigner of excellent 
educational antecedents shall meet our freshman-sophomore 
requirements to the letter, or forfeit his chances of securing 
our university degree, is unworthy of our spirit of fair 
play and destructive of that comity and cooperation which 
should exist above all in academic circles. 

In general, secondary education in Latin America is 
directed and supported by the national governments, and 
not by the municipalities. A matriculation fee varying 
from a few dollars to fifteen dollars must in most countries 
be paid by the student, though the instruction given in the 
liceos is free. As in our high schools of former years, the 
principal raison d'etre of the secondary schools is to pre- 
pare students for the universities. 

Latin America has yet to develop self-contained 
secondary schools of general education which shall have 
no necessary connection with the universities and shall 
make laws for themselves instead of accepting them from 
the higher institutions. 

The enrollment in the secondary schools of Latin America, 
though increasing steadily, is only a fractional part of 
the enrollment in the elementary schools. The eighty cole- 
gios of Argentina have at present a total registration of 
less than 20,000 students as compared with the number 
of pupils in the common schools, which amounts approxi- 
mately to 1,000,000: the colegios or liceos of Bolivia had 
about 2100 students in 1918: those of Ecuador furnished 
instruction to 4500 students in 1916. 

The disproportion between the enrollment in the elemen- 
tary schools and the enrollment in the secondary schools is 
evidence, not of indifference to education, but of the 
natural effect of an aristocratic educational tradition. On 
account of the rather advanced age (about 18) at which the 
student leaves the colegio or liceo, the early maturity of 
the Ijatin American youth, and the economic pressure on 
the less well-to-do families, it may be predicted that 
secondary education will not become genuinely popular 



Public Enlightenment and Education 241 

until the school system is subdivided on a radically different 
plan and pointed in an entirely different direction. 

The greatest needs in Latin American secondary educa- 
tion are a broader democratic leaning and greater emphasis 
on scientific experimental methods. 

EUROPEAN CHARACTERISTICS OF LATIN AMERICAN UNI- 
VERSITIES 

After the primary schools, education in Latin America 
follows European rather than American precedents. The 
universities are combinations of professional ''faculties," 
the consolidating influence of the college of arts and sciences 
is absent, "school spirit" in the American sense is unknown, 
centrifugal rather than centripetal tendencies mark the 
administrative organization and the location of buildings, 
university teachers are primarily professional men and only 
secondarily instructors, devoting but a portion of their time 
to university work, and the administrative heads are chosen 
not so much for their eminent qualifications as educational 
leaders as for their prominence in other respects. 

The rector [as Professor Edgar E. Brandon explains] is a 
lawyer, a physician, or a publicist, as are the professors, and 
the direction of the university is secondary to the practice of 
his profession. As he usually occupies the office but for a short 
term and then becomes simply one professor among many, he 
seldom acquires during his term as rector any additional prestige. 
Moreover, he is not expected to become an educational leader. 
He merely stands at the head of his colleagues for a short time 
and represents them before the State and the public. In many 
different ways the absence of a university president is a distinct 
loss in Spanish-American higher education, but in no respect 
more than in the unifying influence he might exert in the uni- 
versity organization. 

Concentrating their efforts on the technical skill required 
in the professions — and doing this with a thoroughness 
worthy of the best European traditions — ^the Latin Amer- 
ican universities have thus far had little concern with the 
formation of an educated popular opinion. The general 
courses in history, economics, sociology, political science, 
literature, philosophy, which are the basi^ of the first two 



242 Public Enlightenment and Education 

years' work in our colleges and universities and give Amer- 
ican students a knowledge of the trend of affairs and 
encourage them to evolve individual opinions, are not 
offered in the universities, but are left to the colegios or 
liceos, with the exception of the reorganized University of 
La Plata and a few others, which include a college of 
philosophy or of philosophy and arts and try to avoid 
the specialized professional character of the typical Latin 
American university. 

It is necessary to bear these facts in mind, since the 
multiplication of universities in the Spanish American re- 
publics, and of professional schools or ' ' faculties ' ' in Brazil, 
where no distinct university has as yet been established 
owing to the jealous regard for States' rights, is likely to 
leave the impression that the Latin American universities, 
because they are becoming populous, are ipso facto popular, 
also. The chief progress made in the direction of academic 
democracy lies in the free admission of women to the 
universities on equal terms with the men. 

On the other hand, if the colegios and universities of 
Latin America, still dominated by continental European 
ideals, continue their exclusive policy and the scholastic 
pedagogical methods of a by-gone age in the higher learn- 
ing and appear to shun the benefits and disadvantages of 
the opening of the doors to everybody, with the resultant 
increase in enrollment and the patent lowering of standards 
observable in so many instances among us, the assumption 
must not be made that popular education in the higher 
branches has not advanced. In reality, the higher educa- 
tion has, in the more progressive countries, received the full 
impact of the democratic movement, and is evolving in an- 
other direction, closely resembling the turn taken by 
popular education in America and Germany during the 
past generation. 

Three classes of institutions aim at a thoroughly modern, 
practical education calculated to enable their students to 
care for their economic needs and to help the State in 
developing its citizenship and its natural resources. These 
are the normal schools, the agricultural and technical 



Public Enlightenment and Education 243 

schools, and the ''people's universities" — the latter exist- 
ing only in Argentina, but susceptible of adoption in the 
other republics. 

DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

The normal schools have become one of the most signifi- 
cant divisions of the Latin American school system. They 
date back no further than the past fifty years, and owe 
their existence mainly to the endeavors of Sarmiento, the 
"school-master president" of Argentina, who took his cue 
from the United States and France, and to the innovations 
more recently made in the training of teachers in the 
United States, France and Germany. They are proving, 
in particular, the educational and economic salvation of 
Latin American womanhood, and may be said to have 
encouraged women to enter other gainful walks of life. 
The progress of the Latin American woman is bound up 
with the extension of normal schools, since normal school 
graduates undeniably constitute a working-class and tend 
to dignify woman's work in general. 

Seventy normal schools for primary teachers were in 
operation in Argentina in 1914, with an enrollment of 8970 
men and women. Some of the schools are for men, some 
for women, and others for both sexes, though, as might be 
expected, the fair sex predominates. As everywhere else, 
the chief purpose of the normal schools in Argentina is 
to train teachers for the elementary schools. The require- 
ments are moderate, the length of the course is 4 years, 
as contrasted with 3 years in Salvador, 5 in Chile, and 7 
in Costa Rica, and the entering age is 14 years. 

These normal schools of Argentina and the rest of Latin 
America correspond roughly to the teacher training courses 
recently established in our high schools, but are of a more 
advanced character. From them, all over Latin America, 
issue most of the primary school teachers. 

Chile provides 16 training colleges for teachers, ten for 
women and six for men, in which teaching by means of 
object lessons is the favorite method, and English the 
favorite foreign language. Their graduates obligate them- 



244 Public Enlightenment and Education 

selves to teach in the national schools for a minimum period 
of seven years, in return for which all their expenses, in- 
cluding board and lodging, while at school are defrayed 
by the Government. For some years past, the National 
Educational Association of Chile has urged the Government 
to extend its liberal policy further, by sending normal 
school teachers at its expense to foreign countries to per- 
fect themselves in practical and sociological subjects — a 
plan already in vogue in Cuba in connection with its normal 
school teachers. The encouragement given to the training 
of teachers by this State aid is, of course, extremely impor- 
tant, and the plan in general may well recommend itself 
to educational authorities in the United States. 

Like Argentina and Chile, Uruguay possesses excellent 
normal schools for primary teachers. 

The interest in such pedagogical institutions extends 
throughout the length and breadth of Latin America, 
characterizing Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, and the other 
Central American and West Indian countries as well as 
Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil. 
So thoroughly convinced, indeed, is the Venezuelan Gov- 
ernment of the dependence of proper teaching on the 
normal schools that it is stimulating the award of scholar- 
ships in the primary normal schools by the various States 
and Territories and is contemplating the establishment of 
a series of boarding departments for younger students to 
serve, as Mr. Walter A. Montgomery terms them, as 
"feeders" to the regular normal school system. 

Besides the primary normal schools, many of the Latin 
American republics, notably Argentina and Chile, support 
higher normal schools for the training of secondary school 
teachers, Argentina appears to be evolving in the University 
of Buenos Aires and the University of La Plata teachers' 
colleges resembling those of the United States, and the 
Escuela Normal de Lenguas Vivas (Normal School of 
Modern Languages) of Buenos Aires offers a distinctive 
and highly efficient training, involving the teaching of all 
the subjects of the curriculum and the handling of all 
classroom work in the foreign languages, which might bq 



Public Enlightenment and Education 245 

copied in the United States to the advantage of modern 
language instruction. 

TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

The most important educational instrumentality, how- 
ever, employed in Latin America for public enlightenment 
and the teaching of genuine democracy is the system of 
agricultural, trade, and technical schools on which the Latin 
American governments are expending an unusual amount 
of energy and money. 

The hey-day of serfdom has passed, wages have increased, 
industrial development is bringing about a new conception 
of the necessity and dignity of labor, and those who expect 
to work the natural resources in the modern competitive 
world must have adequate scientific preparation, a knowl- 
edge of technical operations, and the ability either to handle 
the necessary tools and implements or to show others how 
to handle them. 

Prudent statesmen and social students in Latin America 
are convinced that their countries, of which much is ex- 
pected in the way of contribution to the food supply of 
the world and in the direction of the fostering of home 
industries, must now make the transition between the ancien 
regime and the new technological order. 

Industrial expansion presupposes skilled labor and 
trained administrators, and agricultural and mineral de- 
velopment requires advanced scientific experience. In the 
more progressive countries, the great proprietors and in- 
dustrials recognize the need of technical experts, efficient 
office staffs, and capable workmen, and are lending the 
weight of their influence to all the technical educational 
enterprises undertaken by their governments. One of them, 
Don Felix Beraseoni, of Buenos Aires, bequeathed in 1915 
the considerable sum of three and a half million dollars 
for the foundation, under State control, of an institution 
to be devoted to the educational and technical betterment 
of the working classes of the capital. In like manner, 
though with a different aim, the Instituto Ward of Buenos 
Aires, established by Mr. George F. Ward of New York, 



246 Public Enlightenment and Education 

provides a practical education for Argentine boys and 
young men who will some day be called upon to administer 
or to assist in the administration of the large properties 
belonging to their families. 

Americans who have lived or traveled in some of the 
Latin American countries are likely to feel skeptical about 
the interest of Latin Americans in anything that pertains 
to the manual trades or crafts and about the possibility of 
changing the traditional Spanish or Portuguese sentiment 
concerning the ignominy of work. They forget that the 
great mass of people is now engaged in manual labor of 
some sort and that the large European immigration in 
several of the republics is establishing the European code 
of living, in which industry for the majority is an accepted 
habit. The millions of Italians, Germans, Swiss, Russians, 
Syrians, Greeks have come to Latin America, as they have 
come to the United States, principally for the working 
opportunities offered by the New World, and with no idea 
that economic independence can be won with folded arms. 
They, if not the old Spanish and Portuguese settlers or 
the native Indians, are sure to demand practical education 
with a definite bearing on their economic situation: and 
they are numerous enough in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, 
Uruguay, and a few other republics to exert strong polit- 
ical pressure. 

Moreover, in all the Latin American countries, the power 
of foreign industrial corporations, which are never satis- 
fied with the manana philosophy, because they want maxi- 
mum present returns, and the lessons learned abroad by 
diplomatic officials, students, and travelers, taken together 
with the daily newspaper reports of foreign activities, 
create movements for practical improvement which end in 
a complete transformation of social and economic principles. 

The changes which occur under our eyes do not, of 
course, seem of unusual significance: and many a foreign 
official residing in Latin America is undoubtedly firm in 
his belief that no change is going on. But the cumulative 
evidence taken over a large area is convincing. None of 
the Latin American countries is what it was fifty years 



Public Enlightenment and Education 247 

ago : and nowhere is this truer than in the field of practical 
education. 

Since 1917, technical instruction has been the absorbing 
educational subject in Chile, due in a measure to the in- 
fluence of teachers brought in from Europe, and in no 
small degree to the conviction of leaders like President 
Sanfuentes that Chile must provide more substantially for 
the demands of everyday life and prepare for the industrial 
progress which is the next step in the national evolution. 

A Council of Industrial Education was recommended in 
1917, with thirteen members, four of whom should be pro- 
fessors of technical branches, and one, a woman inspector 
of vocational training for women: and the work under- 
taken by this or some similar body will undoubtedly seek 
to incorporate into the Chilean educational system the most 
advanced practices of the United States and Europe. At 
a recent date there were in Chile nearly 300 primary schools 
offering vocational training, 29 technical colegios for 
women, 6 agricultural colegios at Chilian, Concepcion, 
Ancud, and other cities, 11 public and 10 private com- 
mercial schools with a registration of nearly 6000 students, 
besides evening commercial classes in the largest cities, 
schools of mining at Santiago, Copiapo, and La Serena, 
various special schools of arts and crafts and special schools 
in separate agricultural branches such as dairying, lately 
put into operation, and an Industrial University at Val- 
paraiso. The commercial schools are not only objects of 
distinct solicitude on the part of the government, but have 
also enlisted the zealous support of chambers of commerce 
and private citizens. 

A like interest in practical education is shown by the 
government of Argentina, by the provincial authorities, 
and by individuals. 

The Federal Government maintains national Schools of 
Commerce in Buenos Aires, Tucuman, Concordia, and these 
have evidently proved satisfactory to a high degree, since 
the students of the School of Commerce of Mendoza have 
petitioned in 1921 that their institution also should be 
nationalized. National industrial schools, similar to the 



248 Public Enlightenment and Education 

manual training high schools of the United States, offer six- 
year courses, with special instruction in engineering, 
chemistry, and mechanics ; and trade schools for girls, con- 
trolled either by the Federal Government or the Provincial 
governments, give a thorough technical education in the 
various arts and crafts, such as millinery, dress-making, 
glove-making, and telegraphy, which women are likely to 
take up. At Tucuman, there is a special school fcr the 
study of the sugar industry; at Mendoza, a school in viti- 
culture ; at San Juan, a school in fruit growing ; at Misiones, 
a school in lumbering. The Engineering School of the 
University of Buenos Aires now enrolls in the neighborhood 
of 1000 students. 

To stimulate the interest in industrial education, many 
of the Provinces offer scholarships to defray the living 
expenses of non-resident students who do not have an 
opportunity to attend technical schools in their own 
locality. Also, in order to keep in touch with the course 
of practical education in other countries, the Argentine 
Government sends from time to time educational experts 
and commissions to observe foreign systems, to report on 
them, and to make recommendations, invites advice from 
foreign specialists, and engages the services of eminent 
technical teachers of the United States and Europe. 

The transcendent value of industrial and technical train- 
ing for a population striving to develop the resources of 
its vast territories has not been minimized by the progres- 
sive educational leaders of Brazil. The tradition of the 
necessity and the dignity of work must be firmly grounded 
in a republic so fruitful in possibilities and so certain to 
attract multitudes of immigrants from all over the world. 

The scientific teaching of agriculture has, of course, 
seemed of the first importance. In 1914 practical schools 
of agriculture, with annexed experiment stations, were 
established under the control of the Central Government 
throughout the various States. Sao Paulo, always eager 
to multiply its educational advantages, has four such 
schools. A higher institution of agriculture and veterinary 
medicine was inaugurated at Rio de Janeiro in 1913. 



Public Enlightenment and Education 249 

For teclinical training in engineering and allied studies, 
schools or "faculties" of engineering exist in most of the 
large cities. The Polytechnic College of Sao Paulo gives 
instruction in the usual scientific subjects, and enjoys a 
well-deserved reputation for its admirable curriculum and 
the skill of its teachers. To Sao Paulo, also, belongs Mac- 
kenzie College, with a corps of instructors from the United 
States, Canada, and England, and now affiliated with the 
University of the State of New York, which, in addition 
to the regular work of its College of Liberal Arts, provides 
instruction in the general sciences, civil engineering, and 
agriculture. The Lyceo de Artes e Officios, directed by the 
Sociedade Propagadora das Bellas Artes and subsidized 
by the Government, furnishes an unusually complete course 
in the applied sciences and in art to nearly 3000 students 
of both sexes annually, though it is not in the ordinary 
sense of the term a trade school. Students obtain in its 
classes the fundamentals for any vocational work, and are 
expected to supplement them by serving an apprenticeship 
in their chosen art or craft as regular workmen. 

Similarly aided by the Federal Government are other 
State, municipal, or private schools supplying industrial 
or technical education, which attain to certain fixed 
standards. 

At present, the entire problem of technical education, 
in which the Brazilian Government is intensely interested, 
is undergoing revision and reform, in accordance with the 
findings of a report presented in 1919 by a special com- 
mission appointed to make a survey and to map out courses 
for the State schools in the Federal District. 

This report, which contains vital recommendations, looks 
toward a carefully coordinated system of primary voca- 
tional schools, secondary vocational institutes, secondary 
agricultural schools, vocational finishing courses, and a, 
normal school of arts and crafts, the cooperation of Brazil- 
ian industrial firms, and the granting of daylight hours 
to employees for specific technical instruction. The suc- 
cessful application of the system in the Federal District 
will undoubtedly be followed by its adoption or an adapta- 



250 Public Enlightenment and Education 

tion of it in the various States and Territories, and most 
certainly in the State of Sao Paulo, whose schools were 
studied with especial care before the report was formulated. 

Not only in the southern republics of South America, 
but also in every other Latin American republic, practical, 
technical education sharply distinguishes the modern era 
from everything that has preceded it. 

The habits and customs of contemporary Latin America 
were, in general, implanted by foreign influence; they are 
not the habits and customs of the aborigines. They have 
undergone slow change, and are now being subjected to 
rapid variation, due to the larger number of forces affect- 
ing them. The practical education of to-day is one of the 
most potent of these forces. 

Uruguay is well supplied with agricultural, commercial, 
and trade schools, and possesses a notable institution in the 
High School of Commerce of Montevideo. In Caracas, 
Venezuela, commercial and trade schools for boys and for 
girls teach typewriting, lithographing, bookbinding, auto- 
mobile management, forging, the commercial subjects, and 
the domestic arts. A government school in naval construc- 
tion is located at Puerto Cabello. Ecuador has schools of 
arts and crafts at Piehincha, Leon, Azuay, Loja, Guayas, 
and Chimborazo, and a school of commerce at Bahia. Both 
Peru and Mexico pay particular attention to manual train- 
ing. In Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, industrial 
schools permitting students to devote half of their class- 
room time to the common branches and half to practical 
work are in successful operation. Salvador maintains a 
School of Graphic Arts, aiming at the teaching of useful 
trades and specializing in mechanics, bookbinding, 
telegraphy, telephoning, printing, carving, drawing, as well 
as a Technical-Practical Cblegio for Girls. In Costa Rica, 
the manual arts and the domestic sciences are indis- 
pensable adjuncts to the regular curricula of the secondary 
schools. Nicaragua and Guatemala have schools for in- 
struction in telegraphing and telephoning. Tegucigalpa, 
Honduras, possesses a national automobile school controlled 
by the Government. The vocational school for girls iu 



Public Enlightenment and Education ^51 

Panama offers, among other subjects, courses in cooking, 
flower-work, and laundry work. 

THE people's university OP BUENOS AIRES 

Perhaps the most interesting experiment in purely 
popular industrial education is being carried on in the 
Universidad Popular (People's University) of Buenos 
Aires. 

Two courses are offered, one in farm-industries, the other, 
in commercial branches. The former treats in a thoroughly 
practical manner agricultural mechanics, stock-raising, 
dairying, fruit growing, poultry raising, veterinary medi- 
cine: the latter, accounting, stenography and typewriting, 
English, Spanish, and commercial arithmetic. A technical 
division now in the process of formation will include courses 
in mechanical drawing, electricity, and the handling of 
tractors and automobiles. During the first year (1917) 
in which this unusual institution was in operation, 1500 
students registered for work ; in 1918 the number increased 
to 2100 ; and in 1919 to 2995. 

The school is what its name implies, a people's university, 
open to everybody who can carry on the courses which he 
elects, without any of the distinct requirements common 
in academic institutions, and the instruction is absolutely 
free. The resemblance between this People's University 
and the popular schools organized by the Young Men's 
Christian Association or the Cooper Union in New York 
is evident. It constitutes a most valuable addition to the 
formal technical schools, puts practical education within 
the reach of the persons most in need of it and least likely 
to secure it in any other way, and should exert a wide 
influence in the countries desirous of making technical 
education truly democratic. 

The completeness with which Latin America is putting 
its soul into the practical education of the people is further 
evinced by the numerous scholarships offered by the various 
national and provincial governments to enable worthy 
young men and women to study in the best schools of the 
United States and Europe. 



252 Public Enlightenment and Education 

Paraguay maintains 50 such students, Brazil, Argentina, 
and Costa Rica varying numbers, from a few up to 40 or 
50, and Mexico has lately provided for an exchange ot 
scholarships with the United States. 

Since the Latin American student plays a much more 
significant role in society than the American student, and 
commands much greater political and social influence, 
whether as an individual or as a member o^ student organ- 
izations, the broadening of his outlook upon the world by 
foreign study naturally results in a laudable desire to 
introduce salutary changes into his home environment after 
his return. Students who have enjoyed the advantages of 
the best training in the excellently equipped technical 
schools of the United States and Europe and return home 
to teach are not likely to rest content with the theoretical 
courses or the meager equipment of the earlier technical 
schools in their countries. 

LIBRARIES, NEWSPAPERS, AND MOTION-PICTURES AS EDUCA- 
TIONAL AGENCIES 

Among the subsidiary factors employed in the fostering 
of public enlightenment and education in Latin America, 
the libraries and reading-rooms, the public museums, the 
botanical gardens, the public lectures, and, of course, the 
newspapers and the motion-pictures should not be for- 
gotten. 

Public libraries of the kind to which we are accustomed 
are as rare in Latin America as they are in England or 
France: yet in 1913, Mexico had 151 public libraries or 
reading-rooms, and Cuba has within the past few years 
instituted a system of circulating libraries similar to those 
in vogue in the United States. The national libraries located 
in the capitals are, however, comparable with the best in 
our country or Europe, the National Library of Mexico 
having over 400,000 volumes, some of them of priceless 
value, and the National Library of Argentina, under the 
direction of M. Groussac, now enjoying an international 
reputation. La Prensa, the great Argentine daily, whose 
owners have always worked for public enlightenment, in- 



! Public Enlightenment and Education 253 

eludes in the magnificent building in which it is housed a 
public reading-room and an auditorium in which lectures 
open to the public are regularly given. 

The education afforded by the admirable newspapers 
of Latin America, such as La Prensa and La Nacion of 
Argentina, El Mer curio of Chile, the Jornal do Commercio 
of Brazil, El Imparcial of Mexico, La Prensa of Cuba, 
El Dia of Uruguay, El Comercio of Peru, which a well- 
informed Spanish writer, Seiior Beltran y Eozpide, regards 
as superior to the newspapers published in Spain, would 
alone be sufficient to destroy medievalism and implant a 
modern civilization in a relatively short space. The num- 
ber of them, both in Spanish and in innumerable foreign 
languages, is extraordinarily large, over 500 publications 
regularly issuing from the presses of Buenos Aires and 
more than 200 from the publishing establishments of the 
State of Sao Paulo. 

As for the motion-picture, whatever its pernicious effect 
when used only for mercenary purposes, nobody can doubt 
its far-reaching educational influence in countries where 
the picture-palace is the prevalent place of entertainment 
and the people's clubhouse. Whether in the city or in the 
remote "camp," it is insensibly remolding the mental 
ideas of entire nations regarding the world in which we 
all live, changing fashions and architecture, and unosten- 
tatiously, but skillfully, teaching history, current events, 
and art. 

At present the American film reigns supreme, and our 
motion-picture dramas and actors are as eagerly discussed 
in Latin American homes as they are in the United States. 

If the purveyors of motion pictures but realized their 
power for good, they might easily aspire to honor as genuine 
benefactors of multitudes only too ready to accept what 
they see at its face value. 

The use, too, of purely educational films is growing in 
Latin America, and instruction is given by means of them 
in dairying, furniture making, iron and steel manufactur- 
ing, the management of farm machinery, and kindred 
processes. 



254 Public Enlightenment and Education ' 

Fifty years ago, Latin America was practically without 
any of the great educational instruments enumerated in 
this chapter. The Latin American division of the New 
World was still the Old World of the backward countries 
of Europe. Much, indeed, has been accomplished in a short 
time; and much more may be expected in the next half- 
century. Those who continue to see Latin America at a 
standstill in public enlightenment and education either 
close their eyes to the most patent facts or allow their 
prejudices to restrict or to misinterpret their observation. 



CHAPTER XI 
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 

The greatest Spanish poet of recent times has been 
Ruben Dario, of Nicaragua. One of the most perfect of 
all French poets was Jose Maria de Heredia, of Cuba. 
Dona Gertrudis GTomez de Avellaneda, of Cuba, startled 
and enthralled the Spanish world in the third quarter of 
the nineteenth century with her lyric poetry, her humani- 
tarian novels, and her forceful dramas. Andres Bello, oi 
Venezuela, the teacher of Bolivar, occupies an exalted posi- 
tion among Spanish scholars. Jose Gautier Benitez, of 
Porto Rico, who died in 1880 at the age of thirty-two years, 
revealed during his lifetime a truly poetic gift entitling 
him to a permanent place in the history of Spanish letters. 

The splendid statue of The Last of the Mohicans in 
Central Park, New York, is a replica of the bronze statue 
of the Araucanian chief, Caupolican, by Don Nicanor Plaza, 
the Chilean sculptor. Some of the latest "finds" in opera 
are Chief Caupolican, the Araucanian Indian who has this 
year (1921) enthused New York audiences as Mathis, in 
"The Polish Jew," presented by the Metropolitan Opera 
Company : Guiomar Novaes, of Brazil, acclaimed a musical 
prodigy in the musical centers of the United States; 
Senhorita Vera Zanacopulos, the Brazilian soprano; and 
Senora Ada Navarrete de Carrasco, of Mexico, who has 
been with the Metropolitan Opera Company. Francisco 
Bernareggi, of Argentina, has lately, in the words of a 
Spanish art critic, "been able at last, by means of only a 
dozen paintings, to set a whole people marveling," and, 
what may seem more significant to some American readers, 
has sold these first productions of his brush at fourteen, 
twenty, and thirty thousand pesetas, or francs, each. 

Notwithstanding the common belief that Latin America, 

255 



^56 Cultural Development 

because ol the conditions of life supposedly obtaining in 
most of the republics and above all because of the fre- 
quency of their revolutions, contains neither actually nor 
potentially the germs of a great cultural evolution, scarcely 
a moment in its history can be singled out in which it has 
failed to produce remarkable talents, striking esthetic 
works, and minds sincerely devoted to the arts, learning, 
and science, or to inspire masterpieces of art and literature 
in foreign countries. 

Its situation has differed in no wise from that of the 
United States, except in the circumstance that its brightest 
intellects, when not immersed in politics and war, have 
shown a decided preference for the humane arts and only 
a lukewarm attraction for the glory bestowed by com- 
mercial pursuits. 

Climate has seemingly had nothing to do with the 
creative power of its highest cultural representatives, nor 
with their individual qualities. The northern tropical or 
subtropical section of Latin America, including Mexico, 
has furnished no more impassioned poetry or prose and 
no less cool, impersonal, carefully reasoned scholarship and 
scientific study than the southern section. Cuba, Mexico, 
and Venezuela have been the equals of Argentina, Chile, 
and Uruguay in cultural production; Nicaragua has sent 
forth the strongest and most versatile poet of all the Spains, 
Ruben Dario, during the latter part of the nineteenth and 
the beginning of the twentieth century; Ecuador gave 
birth to the most majestic singer of Spanish American 
independence, Jose Joaquin Olemdo (1780-1847) ; and 
Peru has produced in Don Jose S. Chocano (1867- ) 
the acknowledged bard of Americanism in Latin America. 

COMPARISON WITH THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE 

Latin America, like the United States, is the off-shoot 
of an old European civilization in all that pertains to 
spiritual and intellectual development. It has passed 
through identical national vicissitudes, and has enjoyed 
the advantages and suffered the disadvantages of connec- 
tion with an old world. 




SOLIS THEATER, MONTEVIDEO. 




CAGANCHA PLAZA, MONTEVIDEO. 



Cultural Development 257 

The words of Professor Walter C. Bronson regarding 
the status of letters in the United States during the colonial 
and revolutionary periods (1607-1789) may be applied to 
it almost without alteration : 

The development of American literature during the first two 
centuries presents a peculiar phenomenon. The literature is not 
that of a people slowly emerging from barbarism and creating 
their own civilization through the long toil of ages. On the 
contrary, it is the literature of a people already highly civilized, 
but transplanted to another continent, where they set up in the 
wilderness the institutions of the Old World modifying them to 
meet changed conditions and taking on in time a somewhat new 
spirit, yet on the whole clinging tenaciously to the substance of 
the old^ and imitating with the provincial's feeling of dependence 
the current life and fashions of the mother country. A colonial 
literature has the advantage of inheriting the riches of an old 
civilization; it has the disadvantage of crude surroundings and 
lack of originality. Such was the case of American literature 
for two hundred years. 

To this should be added, respecting Latin America, that 
certain centers, such as Mexico City, Bogota, Colombia, 
and Lima, Peru, became the seats of learning and literary 
activity in the New World at a very early date, and that 
France, through its books, especially beginning with the 
eighteenth century, captivated the cultured spheres of 
society and grafted many of the Gallic traits on the basic 
Spanish or Portuguese qualities. 

Generally speaking, facility in writing, as well as facility 
in oral expression, is an inherent characteristic of the edu- 
cated Latin American. Writers, then, there have been 
a-plenty: masterpieces, as in every new country, few. 
Nevertheless, Latin America has always had a rich, 
exuberant literature of considerable merit and of acute 
sociological interest. The mere fact that for three hundred 
years the Latin American colonies were held in a state of 
bondage by Spain and the Church explains the lack of 
works of superior caliber during the larger part of their 
history. The turmoil of the War for Independence, too, 
was responsible for the delay in the evolution of artistic, 
national literatures. 



258 Cultural Development 

Down to the first quarter of the nineteenth century, 
Latin American literature followed closely in the footsteps 
of the literature of the mother countries. Literary events 
in Spain and Portugal had a far-off echo in the New World. 
The quarrels of Lope de Vega and Grongora created a 
literary schism in Peru, where the euphuistic, involved 
style of Grongora had ardent admirers toward the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, and earned for their maker 
the title of ' ' the prince of poets. ' ' 

The greatest epic dealing with Latin America, Ercilla y 
Zuiiiga's Araucana, composed on the ground, between 
battles with the Araucanian Indians and written on scraps 
of paper and leather, found ready imitators, including the 
Chilean poet, Pedro de Oiaa's, A^rauco Doynado, which 
attempted to set forth in more brilliant guise the feats of 
valor of Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, the son of the 
Viceroy of Peru, than Ercilla y Zuiiiga had seen fit to rep- 
resent them in the Araucana. Numerous other lengthy, and 
generally monotonous, narrations in the epic style, such as 
El Peregrino Indiana (1599), by Saavedra de Guzman, 
copied the prevailing mode in the ''old country." 

Lyric poetry was fashioned after Peninsular models, 
often in the pompous manner of literary parvenus anxious 
to make good their pretensions by added floridity or 
grandiloquence — a defect not always avoided even by that 
admirable ''Tenth Muse," Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz of 
Mexico (1651-1695), the American reincarnation of the 
great Santa Teresa de Jesus. 

Chronicles, rhymed and in prose, the history of saints, 
a meager amount of lyric poetry of mediocre quality, stray 
comedies, autos (religious dramatic compositions), and here 
and there some literary criticism conclude the literary out- 
put of the first two centuries of Spanish dominion in the 
Americas. The printing press, first set up in the New 
World in Mexico in 1535, published spiritual tracts, primi- 
tive news leaflets, and catechisms in the native Indian 
tongues. The most entertaining literature was written in 
Lima, Peru, where the viceregal court held sway with 



Cultural Development 259 

almost European splendor, and verse was practiced as a 
social accomplishment. 

The noteworthy cultural differences between the English 
and the Spanish colonists in the New World before the 
eighteenth century lay in the spirit with which they ac- 
cepted the strange environment to which they had been 
transplanted. 

In Virginia, along with the ordinary toil of home-build- 
ing and clearing land for the plantations, there reigned a 
good-humored, imaginative outlook on life which occasion- 
ally found expression in writing. For want of a sufficient 
audience and because of the interdiction of the king against 
the establishment of printing-presses, literature deserving 
of the name can scarcely be said to have flourished : and the 
cavaliers lacked, besides, that love of book-learning which 
was rather common among the Puritans. But such writing 
as was actually done by men like Captain John Smith, 
George Sandys, and William Strachey, showed promise in 
its vigor and untrammeled, naive frankness. 

The Puritans were men of sterner stuff, and much more 
co-nvinced of the necessity and the value of learning. They 
believed in education largely as an aid to the knowledge of 
the Bible, and gave a certain encouragement to writing for 
the purpose of eternalizing their religious ideas and spread- 
ing their controversial opinions. Public instruction was 
made compulsory as early as 1649. The founding of 
Harvard College in 1636 promoted the growth of a serious, 
though small, reading and writing public of advanced cul- 
ture. Graduates from the English universities occupied 
many of the pulpits. Oratory of an energetic, if somber, 
style was much in evidence. Translations of the Psalms 
secured great respect for their writers. Prosaic but ear- 
nest histories of the establishment of the colonies were early 
undertaken by such men as William Bradford and John 
Winthrop. Occasionally works of a lighter vein appeared, 
notably TJie Four Ages of Man, The Four Seasons, and 
the like, of Mrs. Anne Bradstreet (1613-1672), whose 
volume of poems published in London in 1650 bore the 
title ''The Tenth Muse lately sprung up in America"—' 



260 Cultural Development 

curiously enough, a nearly literal anticipation of the title 
given toward the end of the century to Sor Juana Ines 
de la Cruz of Mexico, *'la Musa Decima mexicana" (''the 
Tenth Muse sprung up in Mexico"). 

The Latin American culture of the period under dis- 
cussion, however poor it may seem jn comparison with that 
of Europe or of later epochs, was rich, varied, and mature 
as contrasted with the culture of the English colonies. 

Universities existed in the principal capitals, the print- 
ing-press functioned more than a hundred years before 
it was introduced into the North American colonies, great 
men of letters — Spanish historians, poets, priests — com- 
posed many of their works in Latin America, at least one 
famous dramatist, Juan Ruiz de Alarc6n (1581-1639) was 
born on Latin American soil, poetical contests were held in 
Mexico before the end of the seventeenth century, the 
viceroys were men of distinction and education, dabbled 
in letters and the arts, and were surrounded by some of 
the best Spanish society, a poetess of Lima, under the 
nom de plume of "Amarilis" corresponded in rhyme with 
the marvelous Lope de Vega, erudite investigations were 
made into the history, customs, and manners of the Indians, 
Garcilaso de la Vega (1540-1616), of royal Inca blood, 
demonstrated in his Comentarios r sales (Royal Commen- 
taries) that the native-born sons of Latin America might 
in the future contribute powerfully to the development 
of Spanish culture, and scientists and scholars like 
Sigiienza y Gongora of Mexico wrote learnedly on mathe- 
matics, philosophy, archseology, and astronomy. 

The essential characteristic of the beginning of culture 
in Latin America was its restriction to a select class, 
whereas in New England, because of the paramount desire 
to improve the common lot, the salient feature was the 
instruction of the people as a whole in the learning and 
the arts which overcome ignorance and promote the acquisi- 
tion of practical knowledge. 

The eighteenth century in the English colonies counted 
such conspicuous names as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin 
Franklin^ Alexander Hamilton, and Samuel Adams — - 



Cultural Development 261 

names that stand for political sagacity, cogent invective, 
and practical common sense, unmatched in Latin America 
during this period. But in other directions, the fire o± 
genius still slumbered. With the possible exception of 
Philip Freneau, the author of The Wild Honeysuckle and 
The Indian Burying Ground, American writers slavishly 
imitated the manner of the English poets and essayists, 
though showing in their mediocre and often bombastic 
adaptations a commendable ambition to nationalize their 
subject matter. Not until the question of nationality had 
been satisfactorily settled did American literature expand 
freely and independently and stand forth as a worthy 
aspirant for artistic laurels. 

As in every other way, Latin America remained a step 
behind us. Its independence came later, and the prelimi- 
naries to that step were slower in taking concrete shape. 
The paucity of its literature may be accounted for also 
by the evil days on which Spain had fallen. Great con- 
temporary models in Spain and Portugal were wanting. 

Nevertheless, the progress toward dignified self-expres- 
sion became more and more evident as the eighteenth cen- 
tury moved onward, and the spirit of scientific inquiry, 
stimulated by French example, burst the hobbles which 
the Church had placed on intellectual curiosity. Journals 
dealing with the sciences and education became current, 
among the leading ones being El Semanario de la Nueva 
Granada (The New Granada Weekly) and El Mercuno 
peruano (The Peruvian Mercury). Francisco Jose Caldas 
of New Granada (now Colombia) founded the first-men- 
tioned periodical, which obtained the honor of reprinting 
in Paris in 1849, added much to the botanical knowledge 
of South America, made various astronomical studies of 
scientific value, and met his death nobly in 1816, at the 
hands of Morillo, the Spanish general, for his espousal of 
the cause of liberty. 

The inherent Spanish taste for history led to national 
undertakings in historical research, and the Historia 
geogrdfica, natural y civil de Chile (1779) by Juan 
Ignacio Molina served as the precursor of a long line of 



262 Cultural Development 

works rivaling in volume and wealth of detail the most 
monumental histories of Greece and Rome. 

Serious and burlesque epics, occasional verse, and 
descriptive poetry and prose, however, chiefly occupied 
those who wielded the pen. Eafael Landivar, a priest, 
imitated the Georgics of Virgil in his Latin poem, Rusti- 
catio mexicana, and was declared by the erudite Spanish 
scholar and remarkable critic, Menendez y Pelayo, "one 
of the most excellent poets to be met with in modern 
Latinity." In Argentina Manuel Jose de Labarden pro- 
duced a play, Siripo (1789), thus characterized by Dr. 
Alfred Coester in his Literary History of Spanish America, 
the first general history of Spanish America published in 
any country, and, be it said to the credit of American 
scholarship, produced in this country: 

The verses descriptive of the great river penetrating far to 
the interior were the first about the landscape from which so many 
later poets drew their inspiration. Siripo is a play treating the 
relations of the white men and the aborigines. It breathes of 
the pampa. The life of the pampa in the form of gaucho poetry 
makes the originality of Argentine verses and plays. 

The quickening political and social events of the end 
of the eighteenth century wrought an even more profound 
change in the intellectual and spiritual life of Latin 
America than in the countries where the occurrences them- 
selves took place. Distance and the idealistic, not to say 
visionary, temperament of the Latin Americans invested 
the French Revolution, French liberal thought, and the 
American Revolution with a supernatural grandeur. The 
ferment of upheaval stirred all Latin America from the 
fatalistic quiescence into which political and religious 
repression had sunk it. 

Young men went abroad, became infected with the virus 
of unrest, and returned to spread the contagion among 
their countrymen. Some of them, like Francisco de 
Miranda, the fire-brand of South American independence, 
fought under Washington and with the French revolu- 
tionary forces, and came back with golden dreams. Others, 
like Bolivar, beheld the star of destiny which lured 



Cultural Development 263 

Napoleon onward and saw that same star beckoning them 
from their own heavens. French books circulated freely, 
and the theories of the French philosophers became the 
breviary of the growing generation. Everything tradi- 
tional and conventional was denied: nothing was taken 
for granted unless it squared with the ultimate truth 
recently discovered. The Latin American soul became 
emancipated. It realized for the first time that it had 
wings. 

Our Revolutionary poetry, admirably suited as it prob- 
ably was for popular consumption by Americans then in 
formation, is disappointingly scant in elevated conceptions 
and dignified expression. We do not take our solemn 
moments solemnly — as our songs and exhortations during 
the late European War amply demonstrate. Outside of 
our Revolutionary oratory and political essays, little that 
was written in that momentous epoch can be classified as 
literature. 

In Latin America nearly every patriotic outburst might 
lay claim to praiseworthy artistic qualities. Poetry in 
general took on a depth of feeling and a nobility of rhythm 
which were noticeably lacking in previous centuries. 
Whether fulminating against Spain or echoing the roar 
of the "down rushing waters" of Niagara, Jose Maria de 
Heredia, the greatest of Cuban poets — not to be confused 
with his namesake and fellow countryman, the impeccable 
French sonneteer — wrote in the grand style, on a perfect 
level with the best strain of his American translator, the 
author of " Thanatopsis. " Jose Joaquin Olmedo, of 
Ecuador, immortalized Bolivar in the majestic cadences of 
his Victoria de Junin, and held through life the conviction 
that he had been destined to scale the topmost peaks, of 
poesy. The bard deemed himself fully worthy of his lyre. 
Gregorio Funes, the learned Argentine scholar, adopted 
the language of Tacitus in his historical writings, inspired 
by the desire to encourage the patriotic struggle in which 
the southern portion of the continent was engaged. 
Bolivar's speeches and messages are instinct with Napo- 
leonic eloquence. 



264 Cultural Development 

Independence once gained, a natural division of literary 
labor took place. The lovers of liberty could not lay down 
the martial pen simply because the tyrant had been driven 
across the sea: they found abundant material for their 
ardent talents at home, in the aftermath of war, in the 
strife among the victors, in the persons of the dictators. 

Jose Marmol, the life-long enemy of Juan Manuel Rosas, 
the Argentine dictator, continued his Philippics in the 
prison into which he had been thrown and afterwards, in 
exile, drew that terrible portrait of the tyrant in Amalia 
which, despite its high color and melodramatic episodes, 
is wonderfully lifelike and fascinating. Probably no other 
historical novel written in either of the Americas presents 
such a vivid description of an epoch or a more exciting 
romance carrying the reader headlong with a nervous, 
energetic style and an unfailing resourcefulness of incident. 
Heraclio C. Fajardo, of Uruguay, attacked the memory of 
the dictator in a drama entitled Camila 0' Gorman, four 
years after the defeat of Eosas and his flight to England 
(1852), Manuel Segura of Peru, Eduardo Acevedo Diaz 
of Uruguay, and Juan Diaz Covarrubias of Mexico revert 
to themes of the Revolutionary wars or to the disasters 
of the subsequent civil wars in which they have been 
involved; and in Cuba, Jose Antonio Saco, in Porto Rico, 
Roman Baldorioty de Castro and Eugenio Maria de Hostos, 
in Guatemala, Antonio Jose de Irisarri, and a host of 
others in every newly founded republic and in the few 
colonies still controlled by Spain devoted their unusual 
gifts largely to the exigencies of political polemics. 

But gradually from the welter of factional strife a 
genuinely artistic and thoughtful Latin American litera- 
ture has been disengaging itself, with a marked note of 
nationalism. 

"schools'* in latest AMERICAN LITERATURE 

The rise of literary "schools" in France is invariably 
followed by the initiation of similar schools in Latin 
America. The romantic, naturalistic, realistic, regionalistic, 
and symbolistic schools of France have Latin American 



Cultural Development 9>Q5 

counterparts: and the only serious objection to Dr. 
Coester's Literary History of Spanish America is that it 
has not in its later chapters been arranged to correspond 
to these well defined groupings. Literature is becoming a 
distinct profession, and is often, to its advantage, allied 
with journalism. Scientific study is resulting in the 
appearance of scholarly works on the natural sciences, his- 
tory, sociology, international law, and education couched 
in clear, straightforward language. The list of literary 
personalities is growing with rapidity, and since the middle 
of the nineteenth century it has been possible to say that 
Latin American literature must be accorded a place among 
the literatures of the modern world. Its "golden age" 
has not yet arrived, but that it is fast on its way is scarcely 
open to doubt by those who have any familiarity at all 
with its present rate of progress. 

It is a common custom, particularly in France, to narrate 
the history of helles lettres in terms of literary nuclei, 
grouped either about individuals or about movements. 
Corneille and his school, Moliere and his school, Voltaire 
and his school, Chateaubriand and his school, Victor Hugo 
and his school, Leconte de Lisle and his school, Zola and his 
school, Paul Verlaine and his school sum up French literary 
evolution during the past two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred years. 

The same procedure is not always feasible in Latin 
America, since the numerous territorial divisions represent 
to a certain extent divisions in tastes, tendencies, and styles. 
Nevertheless, accompanying the increasing sectional separa- 
tion due to the growth of nationalism in each republic runs 
a strand of intellectual attraction which often bridges polit- 
ical or material chasms. Personalities annihilate geography, 
and intellectual currents arising in one corner of the globe 
have the faculty of coursing almost instantaneously in the 
most distant regions. Thus, Andres Bello, though a 
Venezuelan, was called to organize higher instruction in 
Chile, and created a "school": and Ruben Dario — ^who is 
less known by his real name, Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento 
— ^has welded into the coherent modernista school the dis« 



266 Cultural Development 

Crete literary and artistic elements of the present genera- 
tion in the different Latin American countries. 

As standard bearers in the arts and letters, whether 
surrounded by partisans or exerting a broad free-lance in- 
fluence, may be mentioned Andres Bello (Venezuela), 
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (Argentina), Francisco 
Bilbao (Chile), Jorge Isaacs (Colombia), Manuel Acuna 
(Mexico), Juan de Dios Peza (Mexico), Carlos Reyles 
(Uruguay), Jose Enrique Rodo (Uruguay), Ricardo Palma 
(Peru), Manuel Ugarte (Argentina), Ruben Dario 
(Nicaragua), Rufino Blanco-Fombona (Venezuela), Ben- 
jamin Vicuiia Mackenna (Chile). 

A glance at the work of Andres Bello, Sarmiento, and 
Ruben Dario will suggest the prevailing interests of Latin 
American writers and the general bent of Latin American 
culture. 

ANDRES BELLO, SCHOLAR AND POET 

Andres Bello (1781-1865) stands for the academic Latin 
American scholar, intensely devoted to learning at the cost 
of personal sacrifices, laborious, high-minded, an ardent 
patriot, and conversant with scholarly progress in the rest 
of the world. The political situation in Venezuela and his 
position as teacher threw him into close contact with 
Bolivar, whom he accompanied to London in search of aid 
for the revolution. There he remained nearly a score of 
years, teaching Spanish, enjoying the society of men like 
James Mill, perfecting his knowledge of English and 
French, making critical studies of masterpieces of Spanish 
literature, founding a periodical for the purpose of spread- 
ing useful cultural information among his compatriots and 
defending the cause of independence, discussing literature 
through the medium of a sound and liberal critical gift, 
and composing some of his poetry, which included a vast 
epic dedicated to America, but never finished. 

Diplomatic offers from Chile resulted in his becoming 
secretary of the Chilean legation, after which he was called 
to Chile itself to aid in certain literary work and to es- 
tablish the University of Chile. Installed as rector, his 



Cultural Development 267 

Oracion por Todos or "Prayer for All" (1843) — superior 
to Victor Hugo's poem, to which he is indebted, and now 
recited by school-children throughout Latin America — prac- 
tically closed his poetic labors, and the rest of his life was 
given over to scientific investigation and the preparation of 
text-books. 

Bello was at the same time an encyclopedic scholar, a 
true poet, without the bombast which we are too much in 
the habit of associating with Latin American names, and 
a highly successful teacher, capable of imparting solid in- 
struction, holding the affection of his students, and arousing 
a pure and unselfish love of learning. He combined to a 
singular degree the attributes of James Russell Lowell, 
whom in a more than casual manner he strongly resembles 
in sincerity, imaginative power, and scholarly inclinations. 

Though born in a tropical country, Bello was free from 
rodomontade, rather classic than romantic in temperament, 
and equal to the minute investigation which is commonly 
considered a proprietary right in the north temperate zone. 
His Principios de derecho internacional (Principles of In- 
ternational Law) is a forerunner of the profound studies 
in that subject made in several of the Latin American 
countries, and his Gramdtica de la lengua castellana 
(Grammar of the Spanish Language), published in 1847, 
is still the supreme authority for Spanish grammarians, 
even in Spain. A historian, lexicographer, mathematician, 
astronomer, poet, and teacher, Bello will compare favorably 
with the most lucid intellects of other countries. 

SAEMIENTO, THE ** SCHOOLMASTER PRESIDENT" 

The career of Domingo Faustino Sarmjento (1811-1888) 
is another contradiction to the supposed effect of climate 
on temperament. 

A citizen of the temperate zone, in Argentina, Sarmiento 
had the impetuousness and the fiery reactions of a tropical. 
He opposed the dictator, Rosas, with pen and sword, ac- 
cepted every controversial challenge cast at him and threw 
down the gauntlet to those who wielded the power of life 
and death, went into exile in Chile, joined every reform 



268 Cultural Development 

which appealed to him, including the reformation of 
Spanish spelling, established new methods of teaching, in- 
troduced normal schools into Argentina, supported his 
Chilean friends in countless polemical articles, visited 
Europe and the United States, became governor of his own 
province of San Juan, from which he had set out almost 
penniless to seek his fortune, was sent to the United States 
as minister plenipotentiary of Argentina, and finally was 
raised to the presidency of the Republic. 

In the midst of this whirlwind of activity, Sarmiento 
managed to leave fifty printed volumes of his writings, not 
a few of which, like Facundo, ostensibly the biography of 
one of the lieutenants of Rosas — but in reality a masterful 
account of the evolution of civilization in Argentina — Via- 
jes por Europa (Travels through Europe), and Recuerdos 
de Provincia (Provincial Recollections) are brilliant in 
color, romantic or quietly pastoral in tone, crowded with 
original reflections, and eloquent and rhythmic in style. 

Among the noted writers of the United States during the 
period in which Sarmiento lived — "Washington Irving, 
James Fenimore Cooper, Bryant, Poe, Longfellow, Emer- 
son, Hawthorne, Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Whittier 
— ^none exhibits Sarmiento 's combination of activity and 
reflection, romanticism and practicality, brilliance and 
warmth. With the exception of Emerson, it is doubtful 
if any of these paladins of our golden age of literature 
was his superior, and it is certain that none did more to 
uplift his country and to raise the general level of culture. 

Sarmiento 's most valuable gift to his country was the 
establishment of the modern system of education. This he 
based on his acquaintanceship with public instruction in 
the United States and on the inspiration which he drew 
from his conversations with Horace Mann. His confidence 
in the United States was unbounded, not only in educa- 
tional matters, but also in everything that might be quali- 
fied as progressive. The guide, philosopher, and friend 
whom, in his works, he consulted in the formation of his 
own career and revered as above all mythical gods was 
Benjamin Franklin. His sympathy and respect for 



Cultural Development 269 

[A-braham Lincoln were profound, and impelled him to write 
a biography of the martyred president. Seiior Rufino 
Blanco-Fombona does him justice in this regard and at 
the same time displays baldly his own anti- Americanism : 

But in Sarmiento's day, the liberals of America and many 
conservatives were turning their eyes toward the North, with a 
candor, a lack of comprehension, a myopia which exhibit more 
enthusiasm than justice. The Argentine educator was of this 
number. He was without the genius to plumb the future and 
to recognize the Yankee danger. He did not understand the 
hatred of that race for ours. He read and quoted much that 
was Anglo-American. In 1883 he was even accused of agreeing 
more heartily than was desirable with a work by an author of 
the United States. He died a frenzied Yankee-sympathizer [yan- 
quizante furibundo]. 

In Sarmiento 's opinion, the United States was the coming 
country of the world. 

Sarmiento has been called "the representative man of 
the South American intellect." If the characterization 
is apt, much may be expected from his successors. The 
keynote of his philosophy was incessant enlightenment and 
progress. To the agriculturists he recommended the use 
of the latest discoveries and inventions for replenishing and 
tilling the soil : to the cattle-ranchers, the breeding of pedi- 
greed stock ; to the teachers, a knowledge of the most scien- 
tific pedagogical methods ; to public officials, strict honesty 
in administration and a kindly interest in the working 
classes. For the encouragement of progress he looked prin- 
cipally to the United States and France, in the achieve- 
ments of which he was well read. But he lost thereby not 
a jot or tittle of that ardent patriotism with which every 
Argentinian is born into the world. Nobody loved more 
the traditions of his country nor appreciated more keenly 
the poetry of the Argentine landscape or of the life of the 
gaucho — a race now nearly extinct, but the inspiration of 
the popular and most distinctive literature of Argentina. 

Given an incentive, the Latin American, like the Spaniard 
of the days of the indefatigable Lope de Vega or of the 
modern Perez Galdos, Emilia Pardo Bazan, or Benavente, 
is amazing in his industry and resourcefulness. Bello, Sar- 



270 Cultural Development 

miento, Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna (1831-1886) — ^whose 
historical works aggregate one hundred and sixty volumes 
— are a few among many dynamic, unwearying Latin 
American personalities. 

But in the midst of activities which would be sufficient 
to overwhelm the ordinary mortal, these men of the larger 
Latin American mold, who are representative of the Latin 
American spirit at its best, manage to cherish and to keep 
alive the divine spark of artistic perfection. They are not 
merely quantitative producers. They know the principles 
of art through study and contact with master minds. Their 
sense of esthetic appreciation is oftentimes developed to a 
degree uncommon among us. They learn to dominate the 
instrumentalities of their art, as may be gathered from this 
unstinted, though perhaps somewhat over-enthusiastic, 
praise of the Uruguayan, Jose Enrique Rodo, by Andres 
Gonzalez-Bianco, a Peninsular Spanish critic quoted by Dr. 
Goldberg : 

I have called him, and I will repeat it once more, the magician 
of Spanish prose, the publicist who writes the best Spanish in 
all the globe, he who has best known to play the instrument of 
our language in all its mastery, surpassing Valera in flexibility, 
Perez Galdos in elegance, Pardo Bazan in modernity, Valle-Inelan 
in erudition, Azorin in critical spirit. . . . He lacks certain quali- 
ties and sui3tleties of one and the other: Galdos's creative art, 
Valera's bland, aristocratic skepticism, Pardo Bazan's" spirit of 
observation, Valle-Inclan's dazzling poetry, Azorin's assiduous 
application . . . but who could have imagined that beyond the 
sea there was to flourish, at the very end of the nineteenth century, 
the greatest prose writer of the Castilian language? 

RUBEN DARfo, THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OF MODERN SPANISH 

POETS 

Not less, in the province of poetry, may be said of Ruben 
Darlo (1867-1916), the Nicaraguan, who has been acknowl- 
edged the leading poet in recent times of the Spanish world. 

Dario's life was an Odyssey of travel, adventure, and 
feminine enchantment and disenchantment. From Ni- 
caragua to Chile, to Salvador, to Guatemala, to the United 
States, to Spain, to Cuba, back to Nicaragua, thence tq 



Cultural Development ^71 

I*aris, to Buenos Aires, to Brazil, meeting Castelar, the 
great Spanish tribune, Campoamor, Menendez y Pelayo, 
Oscar Wilde, Verlaine, representing various of the Latin 
American countries, writing for the newspapers, composing 
poetry and poetic prose, Dario reminds one somewhat of 
the intermittently gay and sad wandering troubadours of 
the Middle Ages. 

His Azul (1888) marks an epoch and the foundation 
of a new school in Spanish poetry. He became the law- 
giver and the sacred model of the modernistas, acquiring 
disciples in every Spanish land and leaving behind him 
countless imitators. His omnivorous reading, his extensive 
traveling, his celebrated friendships gave him a breadth of 
vision denied to most poets; the small size and relative 
unimportance of his own country made of him a citizen 
of the world; and his innate poetic genius, coupled with 
his adoration of France, kept his art pure and genuine. 

To Latin Americans timorous of the might of the United 
States, Ruben Dario will always be dear because of his 
much quoted challenge in his ode To Roosevelt, thus 
rendered by Professor E. C. Hills : 

But our America, which since the ancient times 
Has had its native poets ; which lives on fire and light, 
On perfumes and on love; our vast America, 
The land of Montezuma, the Inca's mighty realm, 
Of Christopher Columbus the fair America, 
America the Spanish, the Roman Catholic, 
O men of Saxon eyes and fierce barbaric soul, 
This land still lives and dreams, and loves and stirs! 

Take care! 
The daughter of the Sun, the Spanish land doth live ! 
And from the Spanish lion a thousand whelps have sprung ! 

To lovers of true poetry, he will remain one of the most 
gifted singers of modern times and, though a Central 
American, one of the half dozen poets of the beginning 
of the twentieth century worthy of a place among the 
classics of the future. 

That such men as Bello, Sarmiento, Rodo, and Ruben 
Dario are not less common in Latin America than men like 
James Russell Lowell, Benjamin Franklin, and Emerson 



272 Cultural Development 

among us will seem an astonishing fact to the general public. 
Why they should be fewer is not at all clear : but that we 
expect them to be so is certain. Their frequent presence 
cannot be too highly emphasized. They are indicative of 
an artistic and intellectual strength in the Latin American 
public commonly unrecognized by foreign nations. 

They were, besides, men of the people, blessed with no 
special advantages over their neighbors, partly self-edu- 
cated, and, in the case of Sarmiento, wholly and admirably 
self-made. By competent judges in the mother-country, 
these leading spirits and others like them are accounted 
Spanish notabilities fit to rank with the flower of Spanish 
art and thought. Lately, they have been among the fore- 
most in bearing the Spanish standard. 

With the immense variety of genius possible in Latin 
America because of the character of the land, the differ- 
ences in climate, the mixture of races, and that buoyant 
sense of growth and of freedom to expand which will mark 
each Latin American republic for ages yet to come, why 
should the Spanish and Portuguese scepter not pass ul- 
timately to Latin America, as the English scepter will 
unquestionably pass to us? Indeed, the forward-looking 
historian already recognizes by many signs that the process 
of transition is far advanced, and that the Old World of 
English or Spanish speech is renewing itself in the New 
World. 

Ordinarily, the course of cultural evolution appears to 
keep to a fixed path. Material development and political 
power, especially since the invention of printing, are accom- 
panied or followed by literary artistry, in which the written 
word precedes the spoken word or drama, the plastic and 
graphic arts, and music. The creation of a high type of 
drama, painting, sculpture, or music evidently presupposes 
an older artistic background than poetry, the novel, or 
general prose. 

Latin America cannot as yet point to any first-class 
dramatic genius except Juan Ruiz de Alarcon (1581-1639), 
born in Mexico, but composing and presenting his plays in 
the Spain of the Golden Age. In the other arts there are 



Cultural Development 273 

probably few down to the present time of the relative rank 
of Bello, Sarmiento, Rodo, or Ruben Dario. Nevertheless, 
the foundations for an artistic unfolding in several of the 
Latin American countries have been firmly laid, and many 
Latin American painters, sculptors, and musicians have 
won distinction in Europe. 

LATIN AMERICAN PAINTERS 

The chief centers of art are Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, 
Mexico, and Brazil. All have national academies of art and 
conservatories of music in which excellent training is given, 
often by renowned foreign teachers. The Palace of Fine 
Arts of Santiago, Chile, is by many considered the finest 
art building in the Western Hemisphere, and exhibits work 
by Chilean painters and sculptors which is a perpetual sur- 
prise to foreign travelers and students. At the Tenth 
National Salon of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires about six. 
hundred pictures, by nearly two hundred painters, were 
hung — a circumstance which elicited the not altogether 
flattering comment of the art critic, Jose Leon Pagano : 

The European nations, however, do not offer similar collections. 
We do not mention Paris. No one is unaware that that metropolis 
is the market of Europe; but no one is ignorant, either, that 
France does not possess two hundred painters that represent her 
national culture. When France participates with a pavilion in 
an international exhibition, she does not send six hundred pictures. 
We have seen that it was so in five exhibitions in Venice, and 
we saw the same in Rome, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of Italian unification. 

On the other hand, none of the pictures accepted for the 
salon is without merit, and the large number is convincing 
evidence of the widespread interest in art, and particularly 
in painting, which is in harmony with the predominantly 
Spanish and Italian complexion of the population of Argen- 
tina. The canvases of the principal exhibitors — Emilio 
Centurion, Alfredo Guido, Gaston Jarry, Jorge Bermudez, 
Alberto M. Rossi — and the sculptures of Rogelio Irurtia, 
whose name and works have been familiar for many years 
in France and Spain, where he has gained signal honors, 



274 Cultural Development 

of Jose Fioravanti, of Cesar Sforza, and of many more 
Argentinians with Italian surnames are not below the Euro- 
pean or American average of excellence, and often reveal 
a coming master, or one already recognized as such by 
connoisseurs. 

Venezuela, underrated because of its checkered career 
since the triumph of Latin American independence, has in 
reality produced more than its share of genius or con- 
spicuous talent. Bolivar, Miranda, Paez, and the noble- 
minded Sucre form a group of ardent patriots and inspiring 
leaders superior, perhaps, to any group of that period in 
any Latin American country. Andres Bello, Rafael Maria 
Baralt, and Rufino Blanco-Fombona tower high in Latin 
American scholarship, poetry, fiction, criticism, and political 
writing. 

With the passage of time, the reputation of four Vene- 
zuelan painters appears to be growing steadily. Cristobal 
Rojas, Michelena, Tovar y Tovar, and Tito Salas are ranked 
with the best artists of Latin America, have been accepted 
on an equality with native artists in Europe, where many 
of their canvases may be seen in the company of the finest 
works of modern European masters, and have awakened 
unusual interest in the salons of Paris. The Pentesilea, 
Miranda en la Carraca (Miranda in the Dungeon of La 
Carraca), and La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) ot' 
Michelena, the Purgatorio (Purgatory) and La Taberna 
(The Tavern) of Rojas, the heroic, historic battle-scenes 
of Tovar y Tovar, which crystallize the Latin American 
spirit of worship toward Bolivar, and the Triptico boliviano 
(The Triptych to Bolivar), and the Emigracion (The Emi- 
gration) of Tito Salas, demonstrate the inheritance of the 
Spanish brilliance in coloring, the correctness of French 
training, untrammeled originality, and a glowing patriotic 
pride extremely propitious to the development of a 
genuinely national school of painting. The attention to 
landscape painting, of which Pedro Zerpa and Manuel 
Cabre are the most prominent representatives, promises 
likewise to intensify the love of the criollo, or things of 



Cultural Development 9175 

the fatherland, which is becoming the dominant mood of 
Latin American writers and artists. 

Left to themselves, Mexico and Peru would most cer- 
tainly have evolved new arts instinct with the traditions 
of the ancient Aztec and Inca civilizations. The feeling 
that the indigenous artistic talent of these old races was 
never justly appraised by Europeans has lately gained 
ground among patriotic Mexicans and Peruvians, and a 
movement is on foot to resurrect the principles which re- 
sulted in the finished and oftentimes gorgeous pottery, 
woven work, and metal work, and the majestic temples 
of the ill-starred contemporaries of Montezuma and Ata- 
hualpa. But the main current of artistic endeavor, par- 
ticularly in Mexico, is distinctly European. 

MODERN ART IN MEXICO 

Leandro Izaguirre, Alberto Fuster, Manuel Ocaranza, 
and Luis Monroy, of Mexico, seek their subjects in Euro- 
pean history or in the realms of fancy which appealed 
to the old Italian masters or to the French romantic paint- 
ers : Salomon Pina and Juan Urruchi treat Biblical themes 
with sympathetic talent: and Jose Velasco, among others, 
depicts landscapes in a style equal to that of significant 
modern European painters. In sculpture and architecture, 
too, the Spanish and French conceptions predominate. 

On the other hand, the regionalistic school has grown 
with the heightening of the spirit of nationalism, and 
national subjects command especial admiration. Jose Ob- 
regon's ''Queen Xochitl" — a rich and masterly painting, 
historically accurate and ennobled by a reverential pride 
in Mexico's past — Manuel Ramirez's ''Aztec Baptism," and 
Rodrigo Entierrez's "The Senate of Tlaxcala" exemplify 
the patriotic ideals of the most influential Mexican artists, 
while demonstrating that there is nothing incompatible be- 
tween fidelity to ancient racial sentiment and close adher- 
ence to all the details of advanced European technique. 
Several Mexican artists, notably Ramirez, have exhibited 
their work with striking success in Paris, and many promig- 



276 Cultural Development 

ing young painters and sculptors are now in the French 
capital, partly at government expense. 

The Mexican people, in fact, has always shown a com- 
mendable fondness for the arts; and the government, even 
when passing through its frequent crises, has never failed 
to encourage artists and writers. The latest official innova- 
tion has been the establishment of an art school at Coyoacan, 
one of the most beautiful suburbs of Mexico City, where 
students can carry on part of their work in inspiring out- 
door surroundings. 

In view of the erroneous ideas prevailing in the United 
States concerning modern Latin American literature and 
art, there is room for a series of volumes on those topics 
in relation to Latin America as a whole and to many of 
the individual countries. Dr. Alfred Coester, in his Literary 
History of Spanish America — which does not deal witJb 
Brazil — has already done the chief piece of pioneer worK: 
with regard to the Spanish republics, and Dr. Isaac Gold- 
berg, in his Studies in Spanish- American Literature, has 
pointed the way to specialization in periods and authors. 

Brazil, thus far, has had no American or English literary 
or artistic historian, though Dr. Goldberg has announced 
that he expects to take up later such recent Brazilian 
authors of note as Machado de Assis, Olavo Bilac, Coelho 
Netto, and Jose Verissimo. Indeed, a volume showing the 
cultural evolution of Brazil should prove particularly use- 
ful and valuable because of Brazil's steadfast friendship 
for the United States and because of the remarkably gifted 
writers and artists who are rapidly creating those condi- 
tions in which art may thrive — poets like Thomaz Antonio 
Gonzaga, Bernardo Gumaraes, GongalVes Dias, novelists 
like Jose M. de Alencar and Julia Lopez de Almeida, 
dramatists like Manoel de Macedo and Machado de Assis, 
historians like Francisco Adolpho Varnhagen, painters like 
Pedro Americo, sculptors like Rodolpho Bernardelli. 

MUSIC AND DRAMA 

Such volumes might well treat also of the development 
of music, which now reckons scores of gifted virtuosi and 



Cultural Development ^'7'^ 

a number of genuine operas, like Carlos Gomez's Brazilian 
composition, II Guarani, produced in Europe, and the Peru- 
vian opera, Ollanta, performed amidst frenzied applause 
in Lima, in 1920 ; of the literary contests held by the Liceo 
de Veracruz and other cultural societies of Mexico for the 
purpose of glorifying the national past and present ; and of 
the progress in dramatic interpretation made by Leopoldo 
Beristain and Esperanza Iris and their Latin American 
colleagues. 

Music, it goes without saying, is the adored art in Latin 
America, open-air concerts are regularly given in every 
town of any size at all, and the great artists, like Caruso 
and Tetrazzini, have been welcomed in Buenos Aires, Monte- 
video, Santiago de Chile, Havana, Mexico City, with an 
enthusiasm bordering on idolatry, and paid stupendous sal- 
aries with which our most flourishing opera houses cannot 
compete. 

The State or municipal theaters throughout Latin 
America are splendid edifices, the Colon of Buenos Aires, 
the Soils of Montevideo, and the National Theater of Mexico 
surpassing the theaters of the United States in cost, size, 
seating capacity, and appointments, and the best companies 
of Europe are engaged. Native actors and actresses have 
already begun to make enviable records for themselves, 
though only rarely have their names reached American 
ears. 

SCIENCE AND SCHOLAESHIP 

Of equal, if not greater importance to us, should be an 
adequate knowledge of the scientific achievements of Latin 
American naturalists, chemists, physicists, social scientists. 
The universities of Latin America are graduating thousands 
of young men and women thoroughly grounded in the main 
scientific branches and hundreds more are added by the 
schools of higher learning in the United States and Europe. 
As government specialists, teachers, industrial technicians, 
and private investigators, a goo'dly portion of these recent 
students will inevitably contribute to knowledge in their 
own countries. From year to year, the list of those who 



^78 Cultural Development 

have performed conspicuous scientific service grows longer. 

The late Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, the expert in municipal sani- 
tation after whom the admirable Institute de Manguinhos 
has been renamed the Institute Oswaldo Cruz, Dr. Manoel 
de Oliveira Lima, the political scientist, who has lectured 
at Leland Stanford Junior University and been exchange 
professor at Harvard, Joao Barbosa Rodrigues, the botanist, 
Joao Baptista Lacerda, the biologist — all of whom are 
Brazilians — Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, of Chile, one of the 
world's most learned authorities on international law, Dr. 
Luis Drago, of Argentina, the author of the famous Drago 
Doctrine relative to the collection of debts in Latin America 
by foreign governments, Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay, of Cuba, 
the discoverer of the cause of yellow fever, Jose Gil Fortoul 
and Delgado Palacios of Venezuela, experimentalists and 
theorists in the natural sciences, Dr. Pedro Belou, professor 
of anatomy at the University of La Plata, Argentina, and 
numberless other earnest and brilliant scholars and scien- 
tists, many of whom enjoy an international reputation, are 
actively participating in the cultural and scientific activi- 
ties of Latin America and making definite contributions to 
science and learning. 

That we know little of them argues nothing against them. 
Some of them are familiar names in European scientific 
centers. The Eev, Dr. Zahm's observation regarding 
Andres Bello, the Venezuelan, is pertinent: 

And yet he, like his illustrious contemporary, Dean Funes, is 
practically unknown outside of South America. Cyclopedias that 
give long accounts of comparative nonentities do not even mention 
his name. And to think that a man who has rendered such great 
services to humanity — a man about whom a literature is already 
beginning to form in Spanish America, as one began to form 
about the illustrious Goethe a century ago — should be ignored in 
a country like ours, which should be in closer rapport with the 
scholarship of Latin America than any other nation in the world 1 




COLON THEATER, BUENOS AIRES. 




FEDERAL CAPITOL, BUEKOS AIRES. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE POSITION OF WOMAN 

On no topic is there greater agreement among American 
writers than on the inferior and old-time Oriental position 
of woman jn every country of Latin America to-day, as 
always. 

Consequently, to practically all of us the Latin American 
woman, even of the better classes, is still medieval or 
Asiatic femininity. We contemplate her through the mist 
of our preconceptions as a submissive, sedentary, domesti- 
cated creature, generally too early matured, and, if of 
mixed strain, usually fated to menial labors, in many coun- 
tries primitive in the extreme, tamely yielding to male 
caprice, quietly enduring infidelity and neglect, and only 
too willing to vegetate. We assume that, if all the laws 
made for the convenience of man still prevail in Latin 
America, it is because the Latin American woman is satis- 
fied with her present status and finds it, like a habit, more 
comfortable than any conceivable change. 

What, then, are we to make of this forthright declaration 
of Dona Laura Beatriz Madueno, of Peru, concerning the 
transformation of womanhood in her country? 

Taking as a point of departure a survey of Peru in its three 
clearly marked epochs, the Empire of the Ineas, the colonial 
period, and the Republic, we can follow the exceedingly slow 
progress in the evolution of feminism until it becomes accentuated, 
or rather, indeed, begins at the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, when woman suddenly . . . invades the universities, the 
press, commerce, founds feminist societies, takes positions in 
oflSces, and by these means brings to the mind of man absolute 
conviction of her capacity, not merely as a natural companion for 
man, but as a true intellectual and volitional entity. 

Instead of astonishing us, this statement should seem 
perfectly natural, for the Latin American woman of any 

279 



280 The Position of Woman 

standing at all is but the southern European woman, and 
not the product of a purely indigenous Latin American 
environment. Her progress may be measured by the prog- 
ress of womanhood in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France, 
and that it entails the uplifting of her Indian and negro 
sisters in those countries where the Indian and negro popu- 
lation is heavy cannot be doubted. 

The Latin American woman is what southern European 
tradition has made woman. In the higher social circles 
she possesses that charm, dignity, leadership, and ambition 
which are found among the educated women of France, 
Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In the lower social strata she 
is receiving no worse treatment than is accorded the women 
of the poorer classes in Belgium, rural France, or the 
United States. Our scrubwomen, washerwomen, and rag- 
sorters are leading no softer, more fragrant existence, and 
it may be questioned whether the wives and daughters of 
many of our down-trodden farmers are any better off. If 
the women laborers of Latin America are performing rude, 
heavy tasks which require physical endurance, it is quite 
possible that this is the consequence of an agricultural 
environment in which mechanical appliances have not yet 
made their appearance. Much of our chivalry has grown 
out of our machines. 

Similarly, the influx of women into the industries in 
the United States is as much due to mechanical develop- 
ments as to our willingness to admit them as economic 
partners. Had the United States remained an agricultural 
country, the opportunities for women, outside of teaching 
and nursing, would now be little greater than in many of 
the Latin American republics, and the position of woman 
would presumably be what it still is in the agricultural 
regions of France, Russia, China, and India. 

The American woman has, however, no matter what the 
reasons, fought her way to a height of legal and economic 
equality and social independence which is the admiration 
and amazement of less favored women of other nations. 
How much of this progress she owes to her own initiative 
and to the sense of justice on the part of the men, and 



The Position of Woman 281 

how much to the creation of new professions, such as 
stenography and telephony, to the remarkable extension of 
teaching and nursing, or to the readiness of business con- 
cerns to take advantage of her more cheaply paid services, 
might be hard to determine, though extremely interesting 
to know: but it would not alter the concrete fact of her 
advancement. 

Legally and politically — and, therefore, morally — the 
American woman is a recognized social entity. Every 
woman, it may be thought, should aspire to that status. 
If the Latin American woman has no such longings, we 
may take it for granted that she either lives in an unchang- 
ing environment or that she is undeserving of self-expres- 
sion. We are loath to admit that liberty is not an imperious 
natural craving — even in women. 

Any improvement in woman's position in Latin America 
naturally presupposes a change in her domestic condition. 
Most of the chapters in Latin American discussions by 
American writers which treat of woman at all pay special 
attention to her household duties and to the careless con- 
jugal views of her lord and master. The Latin American 
wife is commonly represented as the plaything of a mass 
of conventionalities degrading to her individuality and in- 
jurious to her personal habits. She is not free to move 
about, is surroiuided by a host of servants, nourishes a 
vain pride concerning petty trifles, is negligent on the 
score of neatness, spoils her children by too much petting 
and lax discipline, and accepts with resignation her 
husband's polygamous tendencies. She is said to be 
ignorant of buying, cooking, the preparation of meals, sew- 
ing, and nearly everything that constitutes woman 's sphere 
among us. Though generally praised for her fidelity and 
excellent moral qualities, she appears, in the minds of many 
observers, to be lacking in will-power and to accept too 
quietly the flagrant indiscretions of her husband. 

To the average American traveler or writer, all this is 
peculiarly Latin American, and the result of Latin Amer- 
ican tradition, environment, transplanted Spanish custom, 
and, in part, Latin American racial characteristics. 



282 The Position of Woman 



SOUTHERN EUROPEAN ANTECEDENTS OP THE LATIN AMERICAN 

WOMAN 

Nevertheless, as has been suggested, the Latin American 
woman is nothing more than the European Latin woman 
as a class, and Professor E. A. Ross's explanation of her 
traits is the only one broad and accurate enough to stand 
tlie test of analysis : 

In South America the position of woman reflects not only the 
South-European or Latin tradition, which is less Uberal than the 
Celtic-Teutonic tradition, but as well that imperious Oriental male 
jealousy which the Spaniards seem to have caught from the 
Moors. 

The Latin American woman has been molded by a 
society in which the Latin male has been dominant, servants 
numerous and cheap, the Church all-powerful, divorce 
impossible, and feminine economic independence a social 
anomaly. Her family life has been the same in nearly 
every respect as that of the typical French, Italian, Spanish, 
or Portuguese woman, and the few differences observable 
have resulted from the lack of economic pressure, the 
smaller degree of social coherence in countries of vast 
extent, and the relatively short period in which the cultural 
relations have had a chance to develop. 

The new ideas to which the American and French revo- 
lutions gave rise transformed the political complexion and 
many of the social usages of Latin America: and the late 
economic and industrial phase of European and American 
civilization is effecting a profound alteration in the Latin 
American scheme of existence. Coincidentally, the modifi- 
cation of the status of woman which has taken place m 
Europe and America as a result of the economic situation 
and the emancipation of woman from her accustomed atti- 
tude of dependence, is finding its counterpart in the 
feminine circles of Latin America where, as in Japan and 
Turkey, woman has heretofore been regarded as personal 
property and treated as a minor. 



The Position of Woman 283 



EFFECT OF THE EXAMPLE SET BY AMERICAN WOMEN 

The initiative of American womanhood, particularly, has 
lately, however, awakened ambitions in Latin American 
thinking women. 

We have yet a long way to go [declared Senora Carmen Torres 
Calderon de Pinillos at the recent Women's Auxiliary Conference 
in Washington] before we can reach the admirable results at- 
tained in this country due to feminine initiative and the mar- 
velously organized labor of women. We must make the echo of 
this labor reach the ears of our sisters in Central and South 
America, up to the higher classes, which are those destined to 
be the patrons of the movement. We must make them understand 
that the most distinguished and most intellectual women of North 
America have unquestioningly placed in the balance their knowl- 
edge, their education, and their personal and social influence, and 
that, notwithstanding they continue to be excellent wives and 
mothers, they have a place of honor in all branches of science, 
of industry, and of knowledge. In no country is woman more 
respected than in the United States, due to the place she has 
acquired through the force of her initiative. 

LEGAL STATUS OF THE LATIN AMERICAN WOMAN 

The first desideratum in the emancipation of the Latin 
American woman is, naturally, equal rights before the law. 
Her present legal status gives her, in most countries, few 
rights, and her religious doctrine affords her only the 
dubious consolation of a sense of laudable self-sacrifice and 
a prospect of heavenly protection. Once married, she 
surrenders her individuality and her liberty of action. Be- 
fore the law, she is helpless. She cannot of her own accord 
invoke the process of law, make decisions with regard to 
property, have an equal voice in the upbringing or control 
of her children, nor effectually compel the fulfillment of 
her husband's marriage vows. No matter what the situa- 
tion of her family may be, she cannot, against her husband's 
will, take up any work, nor, however incapable her husband 
may be, undertake any measures looking to her children's 
relief. In a word, before the law, she is the perfect 
nonentity. 

The American public, when informed of this medieval 



284 The Position of Woman 

status of the Latin American woman, is almost certain to 
attribute it to the continuance of those old Indian customs 
which, among other practices, required the immolation of 
the wife on the death of her spouse. But it is not in con- 
nection with the average Indian woman that the woman's 
movement in Latin America is concerned. For the present, 
it has to do almost exclusively with the liberation of the 
women of the better classes. The fate of all the women 
is necessarily bound up in it: but those who suffer mOst 
from present conditions are the women of some intellectual 
development, whether of European extraction or of native 
origin. 

Though carried over principally from southern Europe, 
and therefore practically identical with the Spanish, 
Italialn, and French conception of woman's place in the 
world, the Latin American feminine tradition really differs 
in no essential features from northern European usage. 

What lies before the leaders of the woman's movement 
in the Latin American republics is a programme as elemen- 
tary and thorough-going as faced the General Woman's 
Union of Germany as late as 1905, when that association 
issued the most notable of feministic manifestos based on 
German and Scandinavian aspiration. To be effective, the 
movement must aim simultaneously at improvement in the 
marriage relationship and its obligations, increased eco- 
nomic opportunities, a large share in public life and offi- 
cially recognized participation in all matters of public 
welfare, and the diffusion of adequate educational advan- 
tages for all classes of women. The subject standing in 
need of the most radical reform is, of course, the question 
of legal recognition, which involves the destruction of the 
double standard of morality, the concession of personal 
responsibility equal to that laid upon the men, and the 
right to a voice and a vote in property and family con- 
cerns of any nature whatsoever. 

Not all Latin American women, it is true, feel a sense 
of dependence in the lives they now lead, and comparatively 
few are able to formulate clear opinions as to future 
amelioration. Most of them would view with trepidation 



The Position of Woman 285 

any change which should break the current of their placid 
domestic existence. They see no special virtue in the 
broadening of woman's economic activities, and agree quite 
generally with the highly flattering and chivalrous declara- 
tion of one of their most eminent men, Senhor Souza- 
Queiroz, of Brazil, to Mr. Clayton S. Cooper : 

We do not understand the customs of your women. . . . We 
are amazed at their independence of their husbands and their 
departure from their homes and their children to compete with 
men in business and in world affairs. With us our women are 
our home-keepers. We like them for their feminine charm, their 
softness, their beauty, and those qualities which are the opposite 
to the masculine characteristics. I have been astonished in Eng- 
land, for example, to see the women working and competing with 
men in ofiBces and in purely mercantile affairs. I have wondered 
at the lack of chivalry towards women on the part of European 
men. It seems to us to be a condition contrary to nature. 

Not otherwise would one of our genial southern planters 
have spoken forty or fifty years ago: and he would have 
earned the warm praise of all well-born southern women. 
To-day, such statements do not seem so inspired, even in 
our southern states, and might be subjected to considerable 
banter. Industrial progress and woman's pertinacious in- 
sistence on her dignity as an intelligent human being have 
made them as much out of date as slavery. In the indus- 
trial centers of Brazil, also, away from the spacious 
fazendas (plantations), they sound like an anachronism. 

ORGANIZED FEMINISM 

In order to encompass their aims, the feminist leaders 
in Latin America realize that they must organize. Organ- 
ization, however, is difficult because the various countries 
are not strictly homogeneous, and social distinctions, hard 
to overcome, are apt to separate for instance, the Mexican 
champion of woman's rights from the Argentinian, the 
Bolivian from the Brazilian, the Nicaraguan from the 
Peruvian. Yet, somewhere there exists a bond of union. 
Perhaps it lies in the fundamental unity of all women as 
a persecuted or neglected sex ; perhaps in the lack of inter- 
national and commercial rivalry, which permits sincere 



286 The Position of Woman 

sympathy; perhaps in the justice of the cause; perhaps 
in the prestige of American and English spokesmen for 
feminism. 

At all events, there is now evident in Latin America 
something like a guiding spirit which is conducting a con- 
certed and simultaneous assault against the citadel of man's 
injustice to women. Ready as the Latin American nations 
are — contrary to the common belief — to join universal cur- 
rents and to adopt new viewpoints from abroad, and 
especially from England, France, and the United States, 
an enthusiastic welcome has been given in most of the 
republics to modern ideas affecting the status of women. 

WOMEN VOTERS IN LATIN AMERICA 

Concrete results are already visible in the field of woman 
suffrage. 

The number of suffrage associations in Latin America 
is considerable and is increasing. Three societies on an 
established footing in Argentina — the Union Feniinista 
Nacional (the National Feminist Union), the Asociacion de 
DerecJios de la Mujer (the Association for Woman's 
Rights), and the Comite de Sufragio Femenino (the 
Woman's Suffrage Committee) — have for some time past 
been molding public opinion, bringing to the attention 
of the various political parties the arguments for suffrage, 
and demanding favorable action. That they will finally 
be successful, nobody can doubt. Women have voted, as 
Miss Ida Clyde Clarke points out, in municipal affairs in 
the Provinces of San Juan and La Rioja, petitions have 
been presented by Dr. Araya and Senor Mario Bravo to 
the National Chamber of Deputies asking that women be 
given the vote and that they be privileged to take an active 
political part in local matters, and the members of the 
suffrage associations have advocated numerous measures 
for social improvement, and are putting some of them into 
effect. The Providence of Corrientes has an energetic Fed- 
eration of Working Women which publishes its own paper 
p,nd is conducting a campaign for woman suffrage. 

The Paraguayan Feminist Center, formed this year ii; 



The Position of Woman ^S'/' 

Asuncion, is composed of influential women and some men 
favorable to equal rights for women. In Uruguay a 
brother of President Brum offered, not long since, a bill 
for the granting of votes to women on municipal questions, 
received the whole-hearted support of the National 
Women 's Council, and in 1919 saw his efforts crowned with 
success. One of the laws passed by the Costa Rican 
Congress in 1920 bestows the right of suffrage on all 
citizens, including women, and makes all citizens eligible 
to state, municipal, and congressional office. The State of 
Guanajuato, Mexico, in 1917, accorded to women the right 
to vote on provincial affairs. 

These incipient indications of a desire for political stand- 
ing may be taken as the preliminary to a real woman's 
movement in Latin America. As a whole, the Latin Amer- 
ican feminist programme will probably be modeled closely 
on developments in the United States, and the more so, 
since American guidance is eagerly sought. The recent 
Women's Conference in Washington has brought about 
personal contact between the best Latin American and 
American thought on the subject, many American women 
living in Latin American countries are encouraging their 
Latin sisters, and the prospective visit this year of Mrs. 
Carrie Chapman Catt, the President of the National 
Woman's Suffrage Association, to Latin America is sure 
to stimulate feminist endeavor and to weld the different 
feminist interests into a more united and more thoroughly 
cooperative body. 

But, for the time being, the woman's movement in Latin 
America is to be distinguished in many respects from its 
American congener. 

DIFFERENT MEANS EMPLOYED BY THE AMERICAN AND THE 
LATIN AMERICAN WOMAN 

Like the American businessman, the American feminist 
has concentrated her efforts from the very beginning on 
her main objective. "Votes for Women" has been her 
goal. Having won that, she is fully confident that all the 
subsidiary benefits to woman wiU naturally follow: and 



^8B The Position of Woman 

she is scarcely likely to be disappointed. Through her 
voting power she can force proper legislation for women 
and children, purify the social atmosphere, command edu- 
•cational advantages, share in the control of public affairs, 
and help elect officials in whose platforms she sees distinct 
public advantages. She has acquired power first, and now 
can apply it in any direction that may seem best to her. 
Not suffering from burdensome legal disqualifications at 
all comparable with the shackles of the southern European 
or Latin American woman, she has been able to husband 
her strength and to deliver the coup de grace with dispatch 
and finish. 

The Latin American feminist, on the other hand, has 
chosen the slower path of the gradual assumption of duties 
and privileges suitable to her sex. "With the exception of 
those advanced spirits mentioned above — ^to whom must be 
added the influential, Cluh de Senoras (Women's Club) of 
Chile — the Latin American feminist is less concerned for 
the moment with the acquisition of the vote than with the 
acquisition of the power to befriend the helpless, protect 
the mothers, watch over the children, guide the wayward, 
further the education of womanhood, and uproot the most 
harmful of the social vices. 

The Latin American feminine temperament, which is 
sympathetic to a fault and drawn to works of charitable- 
ness, explains the present method of approach to the solu- 
tion of the main problem. In a way, it appears more 
attractive and, perhaps, more womanly, than the American 
procedure of compulsion by indignation and the applica- 
tion of public pressure. If, by her deeds, the Latin Amer- 
ican woman can demonstrate her capabilities in the 
handling of public questions of great moment she may then 
with justice, in the opinion of some of her leaders, claim 
the rights which have already been granted to 100,000,000 
women in the TTnited States, Australia, Sweden, Norway, 
Russia, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Germany, Austria, 
Holland, Serbia. 

Time alone can tell whether that course will bring the 
desired results in the way of legal and political consider- 



The Position of Woman 289 

ation. From the experience of other countries, it may be 
surmised that the group of social leaders and working- 
women now demanding the vote in the southern portion 
of South America will accomplish more, and with greater 
speed. In the meantime, the feminine sphere of public 
action has been vastly expanded. 

Progress in feminism in the United States has been 
achieved by a combination of laboring, social, and intel- 
lectual forces. It has moved, not from the top downward, 
but in both directions, the working women and the labor 
organizations having had an equal share in its accomplish- 
ment with the professional social workers, the women of 
wealth and high social position, and the thoughtful men 
and women who have wished to right an immemorial wrong. 

SOCIAL FACTORS IN THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT IN LATIN 
AMERICA 

The woman's movement in Latin America has enlisted 
primarily the traveled and well-read world — society women, 
writers, the wives and daughters of statesmen, and, in 
general, the classes free from economic worry. Men of 
influence, also, as has been indicated, are lending both 
moral and material support: and it is no longer true — 
if it ever was true — to say that there is absolute opposition 
between the aspirations of the women and the convictions 
of the men. There are in Latin America ardent masculine 
adherents to the feminine cause, through whom much of 
the practical work has been done. 

The exhortation of one of these, Don Eicardo Salas 
Edwards, of Chile, to the Club de Senqras of Santiago 
outlines in brief the scope of women's activities in Latin 
America and rightly lays the main stress on the social 
amelioration which women, far better than anybody else, 
can bring to pass: 

How, without the cooperation of the public authorities, can 
we foster the rapid improvement of dwellings and the general 
health, and how can we honestly apply the existing restrictions 
upon alcohol, which our mayors do not enforce, if there be not 
felt in our municipalities, as in other countries, the direct action 



290 The Position of Woman 

of the woman citizen who keeps guard over the family and the 
race; and how shall we succeed in securing, without her decided 
political activity, the just regulation of labor and the establish- 
ment of a system for the participation of the working man in 
the benefits of industry, which is the true and only solution of 
this artificial antagonism of interests? 

The hour for doing something presses, although the political 
leaders of the present day are not aware of its passage. You, 
who feel and comprehend the sufferings of this people, are the 
ones who can best contribute to this undertaking, before the 
Chilean masses give themselves up in desperation to the agitators, 
and before the industrials, beaten by exorbitant demands, close 
their workshops. 

THE EDUCATION OF WOMAN 

The education of girls has, of course, appealed with 
especial force to everybody who has the advancement of 
women at heart. Without education, the Latin American 
woman remains virtually a peon, and a dead-weight in 
any scheme of regeneration. She cannot properly bring 
up her family, develop her own latent abilities, communi- 
cate further than the sound of her voice will carry, have 
any sort of inner life beyond that implanted in her by the 
Church, nor prepare herself for any higher type of work 
than falls to the lot of the servant or the farm-hand. Since 
her influence in the home is paramount, her education, 
because of its transmitted effect on the growing generation, 
becomes a most vital social question. 

Natural isolation in Latin America, due to the great 
distances, the topography of the country, and the insuffi- 
ciency of means of communication, accentuates the common 
Latin tendency to neglect schooling and to pay practically 
no attention to the education of the women of the poorer 
classes, especially when they are withdrawn from urban 
contact. Any era pretending to be modern must remedy 
this defect. 

It is precisely in this regard that the twentieth century 
in Latin America shows admirable signs of promise: aiid 
the prominent women of Latin America, through private 
means and the arousing of public sentiment, are rapidly 
directing the education of women into the main channel 



The Position of Woman 291 

already established in the more progressive countries of 
the world. The illiteracy figures for some of the Latin 
American countries, though unfair to some of them in any 
comparison with the figures for other countries on account 
of the different bases employed, demonstrate that the girls 
as well as the boys are receiving an increasing measure 
of instruction, and that several of the republics are even 
ahead of some of the southern European countries. 

Illiteracy in some European Countries 

Illiterates 

Country Per Cent Basis Year 

Italy 37.0 Population over 10 years 1911 

Greece 57.2 " " 10 " 1907 

Spain 58.7 " " 10 " 1900 

Portugal 68.9 " " 10 " 1911 

Illiteracy in some Latin American Republics 

Uruguay 39.8 Population over 5 years 1908 

Cuba 43.4 " " 10 " 1907 

Chile 49.9 " " 10 " 1907 

Argentina 54.4 " " 6 " 1895 

The four countries just mentioned maintain school- 
systems resembling our own, Cuba having inherited the 
system founded by American educators during the Amer- 
ican occupation, Argentina having developed its scheme of 
instruction from the plans formulated by President 
Sarmiento, and Chile and Uruguay showing constantly in 
their public school work the effect of proximity to Argen- 
tina. Coeducation is common in many of the republics 
in the smaller schools, and appears to be gaining in favor, 
chiefly as the result of the example set in the United 
States. 

The higher education in the southern republics is gen- 
erally open to women, who are now taking advantage of 
their opportunities in large numbers ; normal schools pro- 
vide instruction for thousands of women preparing for 
the teaching profession; and in Colombia a University for 
Women has lately been founded. Private schools for girls 
are common in all the Latin American countries, one of 



292 TTm Position of Woman 

them, the Santiago College of Chile, having an enrollment 
of over four hundred young women, to whom all the sub- 
jects in the curriculum are taught in English. 

That the women have come to stay in the institutions 
of higher learning is evidenced by the opening this year 
(1921) of a women's dormitory in Santiago, in connection 
with the University of Chile. The public school system of 
Bolivia is in process of reformation under American 
guidance, and many of its gifted women teachers are com- 
ing to the United States for inspiration. 

Throughout Latin America as a whole, American educa- 
tional methods are in great favor, American private schools 
are highly successful and influential, and the ideas brought 
back by the hundreds of Latin American students in our 
schools are being put into practice in various localities. 
The attendance of Latin American women in our colleges 
and universities is particularly significant for feminine edu- 
cation in Latin America, since each student, on her return 
\o her country, regards herself as a missionary and, by 
/eason of her added prestige, exerts an unusual amount 
of power. 

rOCATIONAL EDUCATION FOR GDRLS 

Aside from the more general aspects of feminine educa- 
tion, the most notable innovation, with a decidely demo- 
cratic cast, lies in the establishment of professional and 
trade schools for girls, often directly controlled by women's 
associations. 

This new trend, if unaccompanied by any other modern 
manifestation, would be sufficient to set the present age 
in the instruction of woman apart from any preceding 
age. 

The distaste for manual labor has been one of the dis- 
tinguishing traits of Latin American psychology, and has 
often been accepted as an inherent characteristic. Degrad- 
ing as it has been regarded for men of any social preten- 
sions, it has been considered absolutely unthinkable for 
women. The American, who has been brought up to look 
upon work as noble, dignified, and necessary in itself, can 



The Position of Woman 293 

have no sympathy with the Latin American attitude, and 
cannot appreciate in the slightest degree the revulsion of 
feeling which the prospect of having to earn one's living 
by the sweat of the brow awakens in the soul of the Latin 
American boy or girl of good family. Only southerners 
who grew up in our country while slavery was in vogue 
can understand the horror attendant on any social change 
which obliges men to work in the fields, to lay bricks, to 
toil at the forge, to wield the tools of any manual trade, 
and compels women to soil their dainty fingers iu any 
gainful occupation, or even to earn their daily bread as 
teachers or nurses. The thing simply was not done. It 
was against the instincts of the race. 

Rather a crust and a glass of cold water, a desolate room 
and threadbare clothes than the unspeakable social crime 
of servile labor. Hence, on the part of the men, the ambi- 
tion for ** white collar" positions, the competition for gov- 
ernment clerkships, and the almost incredible extension 
of such immaculate sinecures as a result of insistence witli 
ruling political administrations. A considerable portion 
of the spoils system in Latin America may, in truth, be 
ascribed to the Latin American's traditional dread of 
honest physical work. As for the women, they could, in 
such circumstances, do nothing — unless the obsession for 
a novio (fiance) and the use of the most subtle and refined 
arts for ensnaring him may be accounted something of a 
laborious nature. 

Many so-called "inherent" characteristics have, in jAQ 
evolution of modern civilization, had to give way before 
the stress of economic or social necessity: and one of them 
in Latin America which may be observed to be yielding 
visibly before changed conditions is the superstition about 
what women may or may not do in order to secure the 
means of subsistence. The leaders of the woman's move- 
ment are now convinced that public opinion must encour- 
age, rather than deride, the woman who has to earn her 
living by honorable work, and that governments must 
supply the training requisite for enabling woman to make 
a place for herself in the industrial world. 



294 The Position of Woman 



THE PERUVIAN SOCIETY OF FEMININE INDUSTRY 

In accordance with this feeling, the society of Industria 
Femenil (Feminine Industry) of Peru has acquired offices 
in one of the main streets of Lima for the purpose of 
exhibiting and offering for sale the handiwork of women 
of the higher classes who, through reverses of fortune or 
because of insufficient income, must toil in order that they 
may live. Women who wish to take advantage of offering 
for sale articles which they have made — and Peruvian 
women are adepts, as are most Latin American women, in 
the production of embroidery, drawn-work, laces, certain 
delicate toys, purses, hats, fragile trinkets — are not re- 
quired to give their names to the society, but are assigned 
a number, thus preserving their incognito, and are paid 
the profits of their labor after a very small commission 
for the expenses of the society has been deducted. In 
addition to this, the Industria Femenil has been given 
charge of the national workshops in which military and 
police uniforms are manufactured, has entirely ousted the 
private contractors who formerly exploited the women 
operatives, and has increased the pay in the various 
branches of the work. To-day the Industria Femenil 
employs hundreds of women in its own shops, besides 
enabling large numbers to earn money for their needs with- 
out sacrificing their sentiments — ^keen, indeed, though 
undoubtedly false and foolish in our eyes — of conventional 
respectability. 

That very desire for anonymity shielded by the Industria 
Femenil of Lima is, however, a quality which other thought- 
ful women leaders in Latin America are most anxious to 
do away with. So long as manual labor is considered dis- 
graceful, the economic situation of women can hardly 
improve. The antidote, of course, is training in schools 
and the creation of a belief in the dignity of all work 
through the respect shown for it officially and by persons 
of social rank. The Latin American is particularly sus- 
ceptible to suggestion through the schools: and what the 



The Position of Woman 295 

schools stamp as honorable will, in the long run, be accepted 
as honorable in ordinary life. 

Something of the sort has taken place in our country 
in heightening the respect for farming by making schools 
of agriculture an integral part of our universities : so much 
so in fact, that there often appears to be no appreciable 
difference between culture and agriculture. 

Chile has paid special attention to this psychological 
phase of practical education and has established trade 
schools for girls in most of the larger towns. Argentina 
and Brazil are likewise doing much in this direction, Argen- 
tina now having about a score of trade schools in which 
instruction is given in dressmaking, lace-making, glove- 
making, metal work, telegraphy, millinery, embroidery, 
drawing, and painting, and Brazil possessing numerous 
technical schools for girls. The association known as the 
Ohra Conservacion de la Fe, of Buenos Aires, maintains 
classes in the domestic sciences for girls, teaches the design- 
ing, cutting, and making of garments and the operation 
of electric sewing-machines, and not only offers instruction 
free of charge, but also remunerates students from the 
profits obtained from the sale of articles, thereby making 
it possible for the young women to earn fair wages while 
learning the trade. 

A Department School of Arts and Trades for girls has 
recently been founded in Bogota, Colombia, and a Profes- 
sional Institute for young women in La Paz, Bolivia. In 
the city of Santa Ana, Salvador, a feminine society called 
El Porvenir de la Mujer (the Future of Woman) is 
occupied in looking after the physical and intellectual edu- 
cation of women, assisting the needy, and establishing night 
schools, sayings banks, and mutual benefit associations. The 
Government of Peru, in 1920, decreed the establishment 
of a professional and trade school for women in Lima, in 
which the commercial branches, fine arts, domestic science, 
and dressmaking, hat-making, embrgidery, and the like will 
t»e taught. 



296 The Position of Woman 



THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING AND THE DIGNITY OF WORK 

As in the United States, the profession which is proving 
most attractive to the women of Latin America is teach- 
ing. Though nowhere overpaid, and almost everywhere 
sadly underpaid, teaching offers, particularly to women, 
certain advantages, such as social standing and the forma- 
tion of the character of the young, which make up in a 
great measure for the poor pay and the physical and mental 
strain. The army of women teachers in the United States 
now numbers almost 550,000 and is steadily increasing. 
The influence of this vast body of women of education and 
intellect, permeating the whole country and shaping the 
thought of even the most retired localities, is well-nigh 
incalculable. 

The teacher, as a class, is rarely satisfied with obsolete 
shibboleths, is obliged to keep up with current topics, is 
usually to be found in the vanguard of social progress, 
and cannot, however, hard he may try to divorce his private 
opinions from his class-room work, keep from imbuing his 
students with some of his ideals. The woman teacher, 
above all, catches ideals and spreads them. If those ideals 
have to do with the improvement of her own sex, it is easy 
to see what a force for the dissemination of thought about 
the position of woman any considerable corps of women 
teachers must constitute. 

Argentina has now between 20,000 and 25,000 women 
teachers in the public schools, or about eighty per cent of 
the entire teaching force: and any doubt as to the growth 
of a wholesome feminine spirit in Argentina may be set at 
rest by the mere statement of a fact of such magnitude. 

The same principle holds good for all the Latin American 
countries. Where the staff of women teachers has been 
largest, there woman has made her most notable advance- 
ment, not alone in the profession of teaching or in her 
general education, but in other professions and trades, too. 
For, as Dona Elvira Garcia y Garcia, of Cuzco, Peru, the 
distinguished teacher and proponent of the improvement 



The Position of Woman 297 

of women, has aptly said in a recent letter to the present 
writer : 

It was in teaching that woman [in Peru] took her first steps 
toward independence. From there, her horizon broadened. She 
found her way into the workshops, the factories, and into every 
branch of activity, and is now hammering out her fate, on equal 
terms with man, in every field of endeavor. 

The normal school, therefore, has become in Latin 
America one of the strongest divisions of the educational 
system. Its preponderating enrolhnent of women signifies 
that, as in the United States, its ideals, curriculum, and 
methods must largely reflect feminine needs and feminine 
psychology. Because of the solidarity of school life, the 
agitation and discussion of problems relating to the educa- 
tion of women cannot help becoming prominent in these 
feminine centers, and as the most advanced normal schools 
contain courses devoted to handwork and the domestic arts, 
the questions which arise are likely to be practical rather 
than purely theoretical. 

In other words, the training received by normal school 
students is such as to encourage them to emphasize in their 
own teaching the modern view of home and of the relation 
of woman to society. This is the more probable, since the 
Latin American governments are now particularly 
solicitous regarding the training of women for life, and 
since, even in the universities, women show a surprising 
tendency to take up the vocational subjects. 

Professor Edgar Ewing Brandon, in his thorough and 
succinct monograph on Latin-American Universities and 
Special Schools, calls special attention to this aspect of 
the higher education of women: 

The large number of woman students in certain departments 
of the universities is astonishing, considering the long tradition 
and pronounced prejudice against coeducation in general in Latin 
countries and the comparative rarity of the practice in higher 
elementary schools even to-day in Latin America. It should be 
noticed that the movement is, in one respect, quite different from 
that in North America. In the United States it is in the college of 
liberal arts that the enrollment of women has grown prodigiously 
during the last generation. The motive on the part of the major- 



298 The Position of Woman 

ity is a desire for a higher general education without reference 
to its application to any particular vocation. In Latin America, 
on the other hand, it is the vocational departments that women 
have invaded. They study to be teachers, physicians, pharmacists, 
or dentists. If they were seeking a general literary education, 
they would enroll in the faculty of social and political sciences, 
which offers more cultural studies than any other department 
of the university, but this is precisely where none are found. 
Their presence in such large numbers in the faculty of letters 
and philosophy in Santiago, Buenos Aires, and in the correspond- 
ing department of La Plata is because they can there prepare 
for teaching. 

In Peru and others of the Latin American republics, as 
a result of the professional specialization of women — a 
development which the conservative Latin American would, 
a quarter of a century ago, have pronounced impossible 
— ^not a few of the distinguished names in medicine, den- 
tistry, and law are those of women. 

As never before in the history of the Latin American 
republics, women are trying hard, in the face of social, 
legal, and economic obstacles, to work out that salvation 
of which they stand sorely in need in modern civilization. 
Their progress is necessarily slow, and, if the words of 
some travelers and writers are to be taken implicitly, so 
little has been done as to put any serious mention of it 
on a par with the inflated propaganda which extols the 
Latin Americans above all other nations and suppresses 
every detail of a critical or derogatory nature. 

The latter point of view is undoubtedly that referred 
to and flatly answered by Professor Koss in the preface to 
South of Panama: 

"In writing about the South Americans," said one of our Con- 
suls, "no doubt you will always bear in mind that it is the tradi- 
tional policy of the United States to cultivate their friendship." 

I have done nothing of the sort. My first obligation is not to 
National Policy but to Truth. 

The naked truth, to be sure, may often be disagreeable, 
of no special value to anybody, and prolific in injury, 
unless indulged in from sincere sociological or scientific 
motives. But truth, if it is to deserve the name at all, must 
represent the facts in their genuine relations and preserve 



The Position of Woman 299 

correct proportions in the presentation of new evidence. 
A traveler may learn that, in many Latin American coun- 
tries, "even women teachers have little standing," and 
create an entirely erroneous impression unless he hastens 
to add that, in most of them, the woman teacher has already 
become a great power and the object of universal esteem, 
and is transforming the social and intellectual environment 
of Latin America in an irrevocable manner. Similarly, 
if he has not seen everything in Latin America — which is 
more than probable — and declares that woman is not enter- 
ing into competition with men, he is misrepresenting actual 
conditions, though it may be unwittingly, for he is leaving 
entirely out of account the factory girls, women clerks, 
shop girls, stenographers, of the more cosmopolitan coun- 
tries, the women butchers of Bogota, Colombia, and the 
women street-car conductors of Santiago, Chile. 

Social transformations such as these come slowly, with- 
out doubt, but once the start has been made, the limits 
to which they may be extended should be calculated by 
the foresighted student on a generous rather than on a 
niggardly scale. 

It is safer for us to predict, because of the sweep of 
the feminine reform around the world and the considerable 
progress which has been made in several Latin American 
countries in the status of woman, that Latin American 
women will not long be behind our own women in securing 
political, legal, and economic rights than it was at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, that all Latin America 
would gain its independence and adopt a republican form 
of government within twenty-five years. 

The progressive women of Latin America are to be ad- 
mired for what they have already accomplished in improv- 
ing their political and economic situation, but they are 
deserving of more than ordinary admiration for what they 
have done and are doing for their less fortunate and more 
helpless sisters. 

''Charity" is too trite a term to apply to their works 
of helpfulness: ''loving kindness" would be much more 
appropriate. The rather cold, statistical, scientific methods 



300 The Position of Woman 

of our professional social workers have, fortunately, not 
yet invaded the Latin American countries, though, as 
** cases" multiply, the card-catalogue type of philanthropy 
may be expected to force its way into Latin American 
benevolence as a matter of necessity. 

The most remarkable benevolent organization in Latin 
America in many respects is the Sociedad de Beneficencia 
of Buenos Aires, to which the Government has entrusted 
the care of most of the public philanthropic activities of 
the capital. Composed of sixty prominent women, the 
society carries on financial operations in the distribution 
of its benefits on a truly stupendous scale, and its judg- 
ments have rarely been at fault. Whatever may be thought 
in general of the practical ability of Latin American women, 
the present instance should give pause to the makers of 
facile and uncomplimentary generalizations. 

For almost a century, groups of women belonging to this 
organization have handled the increasingly large sums of 
money put into their hands and have used them so wisely 
that the utmost confidence is felt by all parties and denomi- 
nations in their sound business sense, their integrity, their 
impartiality, and their sympathetic spirit of helpfulness. 
The annual income of the society now exceeds four million 
dollars. What it means to receive this great sum from 
the most varied sources and to expend it in a manner above 
criticism, some of our large benevolent associations will 
understand. That a simple group of Argentine ladies is 
capable of administering funds of this size should cause 
hasty critics of the Latin American feminine temperament 
to revise their opinions based on hearsay or on the notion 
of what women ought to be able to do who apparently 
have never enjoyed the training and experience of the 
modern American or European woman. 

Perhaps our college or business trained woman might 
even get new light on what constitutes real administrative 
ability and experience by watching an Argentine, Brazilian, 
or Mexican lady in her multiple responsibilities on the vast 
estancias or fazendas over which she exercises moral, 
spiritual, and domestic control ! 



The Position of Woman 301 

-"^ 

WOMEN AND THE ERADICATION OF SOCIAL EVILS 

The social activities of Latin American women are not 
restricted to financial aid to the needy, but embrace nearly 
all the problems which affect modern society. The regu- 
lation of the social evil, though not discussed with the free- 
dom characteristic of our most prominent writers and 
lecturers, is very present in the minds of Latin American 
women leaders and will undoubtedly be agitated publicly 
within the next decade. The topic requires guarded treat- 
ment and unusual diplomacy, partly because of the extreme 
care taken in keeping pure the atmosphere in which the 
Latin American girl grows up, or at least in preventing 
her from learning that the world beyond her secluded 
ken is vile with pollution, and partly because what Mr. 
J, 0. P. Bland felicitously terms "morganatic attachments" 
are one of the traditional bases of Latin society, whether 
Chilean, Peruvian, Porto Rican — or French, Spanish, or 
Italian. 

Where the married woman alone has social standing and 
the pressing need and overruling ambition of every woman 
is to secure a husband, male delinquencies are necessarily 
condoned, even if not pardoned. 

But Latin American women of the better classes travel 
much, acquire foreign views, learn of the diseases and 
degeneration caused by the social evil, and find that what 
was formerly taboo in one's private thoughts can now bo 
discussed in general conversation without loss of caste, and, 
indeed, with distinction. As feminine independence in- 
creases and the sense of individual dignity becomes stronger, 
a problem that so nearly touches the home and the wel- 
fare of adolescent boys cannot remain unsolved indefinitely. 

Other social vices, such as addiction to the lottery — 
which is fostered by many of the governments and is not 
an absolutely unmixed evil, since a large part of the earn- 
ings is devoted to charitable purposes — gambling in other 
forms, petty thievery, cruelty to animals, and alcoholism 
are handled without gloves. The intemperance of the 
Indians, comparable with that of our Indians, has always 



302 The Position of Woman 

been a source of anxiety, not only on account of the social 
and moral harm involved, but also on account of the 
disastrous economic consequences. 

Latterly, the question has become much more complicated 
by the increase in alcoholism among the working classes 
of the southern part of South America, and both govern- 
mental and private agencies have undertaken to combat 
the scourge. The women of Argentina and Chile have 
displayed especial energy in attempting to stem the rising 
tide of intemperance, have organized on the American plan, 
and are carrying the campaign into the schools. 

An instructive method for educating the children on 
the score of temperance was recently employed in Buenos 
Aires by the National Board of Women of the Temperance 
League and consisted of a comprehensive anti-alcoholic 
school exhibit of unique interest. In Porto Rico prohibi- 
tion was voted on July 16, 1917, or five months before the 
United States Congress submitted the eighteenth amend- 
ment to the state legislatures, carried by a majority of 
38,000 in a total vote of 160,000, and took effect March 2, 
1918, or nearly two years before the amendment was pro- 
claimed effective in the United States. The assistance lent 
by the women of the island was one of the most important 
factors in the victory. 

THE CHILD-WELFARE WORK OF LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN 

The favorite social service of Latin American women, 
however, in which all participate with the most heartfelt 
sincerity, is the culto del nino (worship of the child) or 
child-welfare. As a rule, Latin American children are 
treated affectionately, often too leniently for their own good, 
and given an exaggerated sense of self-sufficiency. Their 
importance in the social scheme is much greater than that 
of our children. They constitute the one firm bond in a 
marriage relationship which too frequently is not even 
honored with the semblance of legality. To the mother, 
they are a real protection : to the father, they furnish gen- 
erally the only means for the expression of simple, natural 
affections and sentiments in a type of social intercourse 



The Position of Woman 303 

which is commonly highly sophisticated. Were it not for 
the mother, the average Latin American child would be 
a most forlorn little creature, lacking that genuine playful 
comradeship which is one of the chief features of Anglo- 
Saxon or Teutonic family life. 

But aside from his domestic role, the Latin American 
child represents, among nations brought up in an affec- 
tionate adoration of the Christ-Child, an ideal which per- 
sists in the Latin home-circle as a result of religious worship 
and the observance of children's holidays. The child is, 
In fact, the center of family interest, and is invested with 
a religious significance totally foreign among other peoples : 
the culto del nino is becoming, as has been stated by several 
writers, a national religion, or rather, if we bear in mind 
that the same feeling is prevalent in all the Latin Amer- 
ican countries, an international religion. The tender, 
idyllic emotions of both women and men cluster about the 
child as much as about love itself, and often, it would seem, 
in an even greater degree. 

To shelter the child, innumerable societies have sprung 
up all over Latin America, one of the most notable being 
the Cuna Maternal (Mother's Nursery or creche), founded 
by Dona Juana Alarco de Dammert, which cares for the 
children of working women, trains nurses, instructs 
mothers, and labors to create a wholesome environment for 
children of the poorer classes; laws are promoted for pro- 
hibiting factory owners from exploiting the young; school 
authorities are persuaded to provide a lunch, or at least 
a glass of milk, to school children ; orphanages receive spe- 
cial attention ; private reform schools for girls, such as the 
casa coreccional de ninas of Antofagasta, Chile, which the 
League of Chilean Women is constructing, are founded; 
and means are sought, and are never difficult to obtain, 
for furnishing to poor and sick children those innocent 
pleasures without which childhood is a sad and dreary 
existence. 

Of all the social activities of Latin American women, 
none is inspired by a more beautiful sentiment than the 
culto del nino, and none offers greater hopes of widespread 



S04 The Position of Woman 

good. The solicitude for child welfare is one of the most 
affecting indications of social improvement in Latin 
America. 

GREATER FREEDOM NOW PERMITTED WOMEN EST THE LARGER 

CITIES 

Any examination of the position of woman in Latin 
America, however superficial, shows that there is a wide 
difference between to-day and yesterday. Organization is 
the watchword, and the freedom enjoyed by women in 
England and the United States is the ultimate aim. The 
day of the duena is almost over in the metropolitan cities. 
Co-education and the popularity of English or American 
schools in Latin America are breaking down the barriers 
of segregation. 

The Rua Ouvidor in Rio de Janeiro now sees women 
shopping or attending the motion picture houses unaccom- 
panied by a relative. The carriages in Buenos Aires are 
no longer closed, the young ladies dress in the full Parisian 
style, using no mantillas to hide their charms, and women 
of all ages pass in and out of Harrods, making their own 
purchases and driving their own automobiles. In Buenos 
Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, the athletic girl, after the 
Anglo-Saxon style, is beginning to engage in health-giving 
sports. Occasionally, as in Chile, a woman's club may be 
found, which, though at present looked at askance by the 
great body of domesticated women, will probably have 
plenty of followers as English and American customs con- 
tinue to give the tone in Latin American society. The 
Young Women's Christian Association, implanted in many 
Latin American cities by American and English headquar- 
ters, and often administered by American and English 
women, are drawing girls from their seclusion and giving 
them ideals of self-reliance and cooperation, 

"Women like Teresa Carreiio, Dona Mercedes Gailbrois 
de Ballesteros, of Colombia, who was awarded this year 
the Duque de Alba prize by the Spanish Royal Academy 
of History, the Seiiora da Costa, president of the Christian 
Mothers' Association of Buenos Aires and the inspirer of 



The Position of Woman 305 

the erection of the Christ of the Andes — a massive statue 
made from cannon abandoned by the Spaniards and bear- 
ing the inscription ' ' Sooner shall these mountains crumble 
into dust than the people of Argentina and Chile break the 
peace to which they have pledged themselves at the feet 
of Christ, the Redeemer" — the Senora de Menocal, of Cuba, 
Angelica Palma, Rebeca Oquendo de Subercaseaux, Dora 
Mayer, of Peru, young girls like Guiomar Novaes, of Brazil, 
and innumerable others of great talent in music, painting, 
writing, and the social sciences should effectually convince 
an earnest investigator that the woman of tradition has 
given way to women of a new order. 

Without a fixed point for comparison, there may appear 
to be only an almost imperceptible motion in the woman's 
movement in Latin America, but if any previous century 
is taken as a norm, the progress of recent years will be seen 
to be truly remarkable. Whether through choice or through 
compulsion, the Latin American woman has begun to live 
in a new world — for the first time her new world — the 
resources of which she cannot now keep herself from ex- 
ploring. 



PART III 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY IN LATIN AMERICA 

Writers on Latin America have learned to be cautious 
in representing the opportunities offered to Americans in 
the neighboring Spanish and Portuguese republics. They 
show no hesitancy in extolling the incalculable undeveloped 
riches of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, or Peru, but speak 
slowly and in measured terms when the moment comes 
for what so many of their readers are waiting — specific 
information as to the best method for securing a livelihood 
or a competency in Latin America. 

So long as the book or article deals in general description, 
no harm, of course, can result to the reader : and the prob- 
abilities are that his mind has been enriched by new 
knowledge and his spirit refreshed by the thrills provoked 
by strange sights and customs and the romantic appeal, 
particularly strong upon northerners, of tropical or far 
southern lands. But as soon as the book or article is likely 
to influence personal action, which may possibly lead to 
unrealizable hopes or to unconsidered expense, the author 
for the first time feels a heavy responsibility weighing upon 
him. He limits, modifies, restricts, and otherwise hedges 
his statements about with guarded qualifications. Perhaps 
he expects to be bombarded — as is sometimes actually the 
case — by impatient young college graduates or clerks with 
requests or demands for a definite route to a Latin Ameri- 
can fortune or for the names of companies in need of enter- 
prising assistants. 

In such case, what is there left for the writer to do but 
to emphasize the need of some capital, a knowledge of the 
country and of the language, patience, hard work, and 

306 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 307 

moderate expectations? The prospects for large concerns 
with plenty of financial backing are always admitted to 
be excellent : and with reason, for they can easily take care 
of themselves. But who can have the heart to send buoyant 
youth, eager for immediate success, on what may be the 
wildest of wild goose chases? Hence the conservative atti- 
tude of writers on Latin America with regard to oppor- 
tunities for the individual American. 

The moral implications of the question are, perhaps, over- 
estimated by the writers themselves. Instead of throwing 
cold water on the enthusiasm of young America, they might 
do more good by stimulating the spirit of adventure and 
the inherent energy of the thousands of Americans cramped 
by the close confinement of our predominantly industrial 
life and anxious for broader prospects. Instead of stressing 
the discomforts which may be suffered at a distance from 
prepared breakfast-foods, the electric button, the delivery 
truck, and asphalt pavements, they might render a real 
national service in minimizing the essential value of so 
many features in our civilization which are leading to fatty 
degeneration of the spirit and to the decadence of enter- 
prise. Our robust young men and our athletic and efficient 
young women cannot forever remain tied to the apron 
strings of the sheltered, monotonous city or of the unevent- 
ful small town in their own country. 

Precisely what the young American to-day needs most is 
the will to try new environments. We have seen ourselves 
forced to adventure far into exporting, and it is commonly 
conceded that our whole prosperity, like that of Great Bri- 
tain, now rests on the amount of business which we can 
do with the outside world. But can our exporting business 
long be done entirely from the home office? Can we suc- 
cessfully compete with Europeans and Orientals who have 
established outposts and extensions of their own nationality 
in Latin America? Can we expect our business catalogues 
to do for us what the personal influence of millions of Latin 
American Spaniards and Italians, hundreds of thousands 
of Germans, and thousands of French can do for Spain, 
Italy, Germany, and France? 



308 The Field 0} Opportunity in Latin America 

CAN WE HOLD THIS TRADE? 

The marvel is that we seem to be getting the trade, even 
in the southern part of Latin America and in spite of 
disturbing post-war factors. Our exports to the principal 
countries have been steadily rising since 1914, as can be 
seen at a glance: 

Exports to 1914 1919 1920 

Argentina $45,179,000 $155,899,390 $213,725,984 

Brazil 29,964,000 114,696,309 156,740,365 

Chile 17,432,000 53,121,087 55,310,465 

Uruguay 5,641,000 31,419,669 33,720,550 

Mexico 38,749,000 131,455,101 207,854,197 

Cuba 68,884,000 278,391,222 515,082,549 

The question is, "Can we hold this trade in the face of 
the strenuous efforts being made by the European countries 
to influence the flow of commerce in their direction by aU 
the varied appeals of modern business ? ' ' 

Once before, we were favored with a goodly share of 
the commerce of the southern republics. In the Caribbean 
region, no fear need be entertained. We have there our 
own outposts ; and the short distance between the Caribbean 
republics and the United States is a sufficient guarantee 
of our commercial preponderance. But, toward the middle 
of the nineteenth century, we were preponderant, too, in 
the southern half of Latin America, due largely to the 
indefatigable efforts of William Wheelright of Newbury- 
port, Massachusetts. In 1852 there were, as Mr. Harry W. 
Van Dyke shows, six hundred vessels flying the American 
flag in the harbor of Buenos Aires alone, or ''more than 
double the number from all other nations combined." 
Later, absorbed in our internal development and handi- 
capped by the disappearance of our merchant marine, we 
lost our privileged position and were content, until the 
advent of the European War, to play a secondary commer- 
cial role in the more distant section of the South American 
continent. 

It is now high time that we adopted some of the features 
of the European commercial and social policy to which we 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 309 

have thus far paid scant attention. All that can be done 
in the ordinary way of business we are doing with marked 
success, and such an item as the sale of $27,000,000 worth 
of automobiles by one American company in 1920 to the 
Argentine market, which formerly meant practically noth- 
ing to our automobile manufacturers, is eloquent testimony 
to the value of our wares and the effectiveness of our sales- 
manship. Our shipping facilities have increased, our banks 
have widely extended their service, our business men in 
Latin America have organized flourishing chambers of com- 
merce, and our purchase of Latin American products has 
augmented in proportion to our need of raw materials. 
From the two republics of Argentina and Cuba alone we 
imported in 1920 supplies to the amount of nearly a billion 
dollars — $929,472,773, to be exact — or almost the equivalent 
of the amount which we imported from all Europe in the 
ten months ending with October of that year ($1,078,373,- 
197). 

REMARKABLE EXPANSION OP AMERICAN INVESTMENTS IN LATIN 

AMERICA 

American investments of capital, too, which formerly 
lagged far behind those of European countries, have begun, 
to assume the importance in Latin America which has been 
advocated by innumerable writers and statesmen. 

The investment of American capital in South America under 
the direction of American experts [declared Secretary Root in 
1906] should be promoted, not merely upon simple investment 
grounds, but as a means of creating and enlarging trade. . . . 
I believe that there is a vast number of enter^Drises awaiting 
capital in the more advanced countries of South America, capable 
of yielding great profits, and in which the property and the 
profits will be as safe as in the United States or Canada. A 
good many such enterprises are already begun. I have found 
a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a 
graduate of the Columbia School of Mines, and a graduate of 
Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders smelting copper close under 
the snow line of the Andes; I have ridden in an American car 
upon an American electric road, built by a New York engineer, 
in the heart of the coffee region of Brazil; and I have seen the 
waters of that river along which Pizarro established his line 



310 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

of eommunieation in the conquest of Peru, harnessed to American 
machinery to make light and power for the city of Lima. Every 
such point is the nucleus of American trade — the source of orders 
for American goods. 

Advice of this kind has been taken to heart by American 
investors. Within the past half dozen years, such consider- 
able loans as the following, in addition to many smaller 
loans, have been secured in the United States for Latin 
American governments, states, cities, and industrial under- 
takings : 

Country Floated Amount 

Argentina : 

Central Argentina R.R Feb. 1, 1917 $15,000,000 

Chile: 

Gold bonds for liquidation Feb. 1, 1921 24,000,000 

Braden Copper Mines Co Feb. 1, 1916 20,000,000 

Chile Copper Co May, 1917 35,000,000 

Peru: 

Cerro de Pasco Copper Co Jan., 1921 8,000,000 

Brazil : 

United States of Brazil June 1, 1921 25,000,000 

State of Sao Paulo Jan. 1, 1921 10,000,000 

City of Rio de Janeiro May 1, 1919 10,000,000 

City of Sao Paulo Nov. 1, 1919 8,500,000 

City of Rio de Janeiro Oct. 1, 1921 50,000,000 

Over a quarter of a billion dollars of American money 
is invested in Chilean iron, copper, and nitrate; over a 
hundred million dollars are distributed among Argentine 
government and industrial loans; heavy investments have 
recently been made in Venezuelan and Colombian gold mine 
and oil deposits; down to 1918, one billion fifty-seven 
million dollars had been invested in Mexican properties; 
and about one billion dollars have been placed in Cuban 
enterprises. The total investment of American money in 
Latin America aggregates at the present moment some- 
thing like three billion dollars — an almost incredible im- 
provement on the conditions obtaining at the time of 
Secretary Root 's address before the Trans-Mississippi Com- 
mercial Congress. 

As confidence in the wealth and stability of Latin 
America grows, this alliance of American money with Latin 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 311 

American resources is certain to reach huge proportions, 
American money cannot stay at home any longer. 

FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS ACCOMPANIED BY INVESTMENT IN 
PERSONNEL 

As investments of capital seek the Latin American field, 
the establishment of businesses on Latin American soil 
receives a perceptible acceleration : and this step is naturally 
accompanied by the formation of groups of American ad- 
ministrators and employees in the places where the indus- 
tries are located. The American packing plants of Argen- 
tina, Uruguay, and Brazil, the Colombian Products Com- 
pany of Colombia, the Dupont and the Grace nitrate oficinas 
in Chile, the Guggenheim, Morgan, and Bethlehem Steel 
Company properties in Chile and Bolivia, the great asphalt 
works in the State of Bermudez, Venezuela, operated by an 
American company, the vast American sugar estates of 
Cuba and Santo Domingo, the International Railways of 
Central America, the United Fruit Company and the other 
undertakings sponsored by the Keith interests, the Far- 
quhar projects of Brazil, the Grace steamship lines, ware- 
houses, and offices, and the Doheny, Tropical, Standard 
and other oil companies of Mexico and South America, em- 
ploy regiments, if not veritable armies, of American execu- 
tives, experts, salesmen, and office help in their Latin Ameri- 
can and United States establishments. 

The network of enterprises in which some of these con- 
cerns are engaged, the immense amount of capital involved, 
and the number and kinds of employees required may be 
comprehended from a few examples. 

The Guggenheim interests control the Braden Copper 
Company, the Chile Exploration Company, the Chile Cop- 
per Company, and mining and smelting works in Mexico, 
besides the extensive steamship and other transportation 
facilities connected with these mammoth properties. Their 
mining, smelting, and electrification problems necessitate 
the services of highly trained technical experts, the social 
organization of their establishments involves the employ- 
ment of sanitary inspectors^ teachers, directors of physical 



312 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

education, physicians, and nurses, and their office force in- 
cludes large numbers of accountants, auditors, and all 
classes of clerical assistants. The Chuquicamata plant is, 
from the point of view of health service, a Panama Canal 
Zone in little; its sanitation was planned by a member of 
the staff of Colonel Gorgas; and various officials devote 
their time to looking after the social welfare and entertain- 
ment of the hundreds of American and European employees 
and the thousands of Chilean workmen. 

W. R. Grace and Company, the merchant princes par 
excellence, do an enormous purchasing and selling business 
in Latin America and are one of the most powerful influ- 
ences on the West Coast of South America. Some of their 
engineering enterprises, too, such as the construction of the 
Trans-Andean Eailroad in 1910, between Buenos Aires and 
Santiago through the Andes, are stupendous in their com- 
plexity and vast in their demands in personnel and equip- 
ment. In certain articles, such as coffee and nitrates, they 
are the largest individual shippers in South America. Their 
aggregate business totaled $250,000,000 in 1917, and re- 
quired the services of 25,000 employees, a tonnage of 140,- 
000 in ships constructed by the company itself, and a 
considerable additional tonnage in chartered vessels. 

The head of the Brazil Railway Company is Mr. Percival 
Farquhar of New York, of whom Mr. J. O. P. Bland 
observes : 

. . . the ideas which radiated from him in such profusion 
whether financially profitable or not, have left their mark upon 
the continent. Farquhar's follies, they call them sometimes — for 
example, that Palace in the wilderness, the hotel and gambling 
casino at Guaruja — but the impression that one forms of his 
meteoric career, even when other company promoters and finan- 
ciers discuss it, suggests something of the conquistador quality, 
something of the superman capacity for seeing and seizing oppor- 
tunities which, with a little luck, makes a Cecil Rhodes or a 
Pierpont Morgan. 

The company of which Mr. Farquhar is the guiding spirit 
is capitalized at 900,000,000 francs (normal exchange), 
subscribed in France, London, and Brussels, controls im- 
mense land and lumber properties — the area owned by the 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 313 

cattle company alone, according to Miss L. E. Elliott in 
her unexcelled Brazil To-day and To-morrow, running 
above 8,000,000 acres — maintains a steamship service on 
the Amazon River, operates thousands of miles of railroads, 
and is interested in an incredible number of private and 
public undertakings. Its colonization work in Southern 
Brazil is epic in scope and of extreme importance to the 
future of Brazil, the government of which is cooperating 
in various ways to its complete success, especially in the 
direction of furnishing educational facilities to the settlers, 
who have been coming in the main from Austria, Poland, 
and Italy. Though originating in French capital, the 
Brazil Railway Company is registered under the laws of 
the State of Maine. Its various activities and units are 
commonly spoken of in Brazil simply as "Farquhar," and 
to Mr. Farquhar appear principally due the energy and 
imagination which are peopling illimitable expanses of 
arable land in Brazil, making use of the magnificent forests 
of the interior of the country, and promoting the improve- 
ment of the cattle on which a great deal of the future 
prosperity of Brazil will depend. 

The ambitious young American is periodically stimulated 
to increased effort by anecdotes and biographical details 
centering about the lives of such magnates and potentates 
as Mr. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, the Vanderbilts, 
the Goulds, Woolworth, the Weyerhaeusers, Mr. Theodore 
Vail, Mr. Frank Vanderlip, Frick, Russell Sage, whose 
fortunes have been built on the opportunities offered at 
home. 

AMERICANS WHO OWE THEIR FORTUNES TO LATIN AMERICA 

There is another group of multimillionaires or men who 
have made multimillionaires, whose names may well be called 
to the attention of aspiring Americans — Henry Meiggs, 
born at Catskill, New York, who constructed the railroad 
between Valparaiso and Santiago, erected a marvelous 
monument to himself in the shape of the railroads from 
MoUendo to Arequipa and from Lima to Oroya, the latter 
the highest railway in the world and one of the most 



314 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

romantic projects of practical engineering, and was one 
of the notable figures of Santiago, Chile, where he and his 
Chilean wife welcomed society in sumptuous style ; William 
Wheelwright, who constructed the docks at Valparaiso, 
Chile, built the railroad from Rosario to Cordoba in Argen- 
tina, and organized the great Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company; the late Fred Stark Pearson of New York, re- 
garded by many as the world's foremost engineer, who was 
president of A Luz (Light) Company, capitalized at $100,- 
000,000 and employing some 10,000 men and women, to 
which Rio de Janeiro looks for its light, power, telephone, 
and street-car service; Mr. Minor C. Keith, of Brooklyn, 
New York, the organizer of the United Fruit Company, 
president of the South American Electric Smelting Com- 
pany, of the Abangarez Gold Fields of Costa Rica, of the 
Guatemala Central Railroad Company, and of the Inter- 
national Railway of Central America, who married the 
daughter of Jose Maria Castro, ex-president of Costa Rica ; 
Mr. Edward L. Doheny, whose connection with Latin 
American oil syndicates has made him the latter-day oil 
king; James Lick, the donor of the Lick Observatory, who 
was for a long time a manufacturer of pianos in Buenos 
Aires and Valparaiso; the six Guggenheim brothers and 
their father, Meyer Guggenheim, whose unerring talent 
for the discovery of valuable mining properties has un- 
covered veritable mountains of the precious metals in South 
"America and Mexico; Mr. Charles Schwab, the genius of 
the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, who has acquired one 
of the most valuable deposits of the best iron ore in the 
world near Coquimbo, Chile, manufactured many of the 
huge coast defense guns of Chile, and built the two super- 
dreadnoughts, the Moreno and the Rivadavia, for Argentina 
at a cost of $22,000,000 to the government of that republic ; 
and George Peter Ernest Tornquist of Baltimore, whose 
son, Ernesto Tornquist, established the great banking house 
of Ernesto Tornquist and Company, which is to Argentina 
what J. P. Morgan and Company is to us, and whose grand- 
son, Don Carlos A. Tornquist, an ardent Argentinian, is 
perhaps the most eminent banker of South America. 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 315 

These men, like the captains of local American industries, 
have taken advantage of outstanding opportunities with 
plenty of room for expansion. They have had the gift of 
vision and realized that Latin America is a yet unexploited 
territory. They have benefited themselves, their associates, 
the Latin American republics, and American business in 
general. They recall the age of the conquistador es, and 
their amazing deeds are worthy of that type of chronicle 
of success to which young America is referred for inspira- 
tion and for rules of conduct. The number of Americans 
who owe their power and place to Latin America is already 
large: and many of these men started from exceedingly 
small beginnings. That the number will increase immeas- 
urably is scarcely to be doubted, for the surface of Latin 
American riches has but been scratched. 

RECENT SUCCESSES OP LARGE AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CONCERNS 
IN LATIN AMERICA 

In the present state of world finances, American money 
and business acumen should have no difficulty in carrying 
through the multiple immense projects in engineering, elec- 
trification, railroad construction, the building of docks, the 
establishment of public utilities, factories, and industrial 
colonies, and the development of agricultural and mining 
resources of which Latin American stands to-day in greater 
need than ever. Daily items from Latin America prove 
how effectively American interests are taking advantage 
of their unique opportunities and how surely commerce 
is following in the wake of their enterprise. 

The Westinghouse Company and allied interests have 
just been awarded the contract for the electrification of the 
Chilean State Railroad between Valparaiso and Santiago 
and of the Los Andes branch of the trans-continental line 
to Buenos Aires. The amount involved is more than $10,- 
000,000, and the contract is the largest for railway elec- 
trification ever placed with an American firm for work 
outside the United States. The equipment required, which 
includes locomotives and everything necessary to complete 
electrification, will naturally be obtained from the United 



316 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

States. The Westinghouse Company secured the contract 
in the face of keen competition from Germany and other 
European countries. The order, while of considerable size, 
is but a hint of later possibilities, since Chile is bent on 
electrifying all its railroads, on account of the abundance 
of water power and the high price of fuel. The recent 
purchase of an immense oil field of 5,320,000 acres in Bolivia 
by Mr. Spruille Braden and his associates was likewise 
brought to a successful conclusion in the teeth of sharp 
competition from Germany and England, and implies heavy 
requirements in American equipment and personnel. Mr. 
Braden regards this new petroleum area in southeastern 
Bolivia as one of the most promising oil fields in the world 
and reports that it contains one of the highest grades of 
oil ever found. 

These are but two of the many important contracts and 
concessions won by United States firms and individuals 
during the current year. A few others which may be men- 
tioned are the contract between the Bolivian Government 
and an American company for the completion of the rail- 
road between Atocha, Bolivia, and La Quiaca, Argentina, 
which forms part of the trunk line between Buenos Aires 
and La Paz, at a cost of $8,500,000 ; the concession by the 
Government of Costa Rica to American interests for the 
construction and operation of a railway "from the Bay 
of Culebra on the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula 
past the head of the Gulf of Nicoya to a junction with the 
Pacific Railway at or near the port of Puntarenas"; the 
concession by the Peruvian Government to Mr. M. A. 
Matthews for the construction of a port in the Bay of 
Matarani, which will include the building of a railroad to 
MoUendo, waterworks, and the erection of a customs-house 
and other edifices; the concession by the Mexican Govern- 
ment of oil rights in Lower California to the Marland Oil 
Company, which expects to invest several million dollars 
in the enterprise ; and the granting of options to the Ameri- 
can Smelting and Refining Company, controlled by the 
Guggenheim interests, on several silver and copper proper- 
ties in Peru, which will undoubtedly lead to the opening 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 317 

up of extensive anthracite coal regions in the immediate 
neighborhood. 

All such undertakings mean American equipment, office 
supplies, automobiles and motor trucks, and certain kinds 
of food and clothing. They mean, also, something more 
vital which has been proved time and again : the acquisition 
by Latin Americans of a taste and a desire for American 
products. The American era in railroad building in Latin 
America, which has followed a British and German era, has 
resulted lately in the purchase by Costa Eica of several 
locomotives and 30 freight cars, by Mexico of 90 locomotives 
with a prospective additional order of 20 more, by the 
Paulista Railway Company of a number of freight and 
passenger locomotives, which, as the South American states, 
"marks a milestone in the electrification of one of the most 
important lines jn all South America." Two American 
companies have, in the last few months of 1921, arranged 
for a five-year credit of $10,000,000 with the Argentine 
State Railways, and are to deliver 75 locomotives valued at 
$3,500,000, 2000 freight cars valued at $5,000,000, and 
spare parts and appliances to the extent of $1,500,000. 

FuUy as admirable, and perhaps a more remarkable, 
example of the wisdom of inculcating a habit for American 
goods may be found in the work of such firms as the Singer 
Sewing Machine Company, the National Cash Register 
Company, the United Shoe Machinery Company, some of 
our shoe manufacturers, and several of our manufacturers 
of fountain-pens, typewriters, printing machinery, and 
phonographs. These companies, by means of their highly 
efficient organization and their persevering advertising, 
have made their wares household names in the cities, towns, 
and, in the case of several, in even the remotest districts 
of all Latin America : and it is improbable that they need 
to worry greatly about foreign rivalry. 

It may be true, as has often been stated, that most of 
these concerns hold the field because they exercise a 
monopoly resting on patents or exclusive features : but, in 
reality, in practically no instance do they deal in such 
peculiar products as to preclude imitation, and in no in- 



318 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

stance are they the only manufacturers in the world of the 
articles which they have to offer to their Latin American 
customers. 

Good and sufficient practical business reasons explain the 
declaration of the manager of La Prensa of Buenos Aires 
to Mr. Nevin 0. Winter : 

''All of our printing machinery is of North American make, 
as is almost everything in the establishment, except the type. . . . 
We have found those goods to be the best. Furthermore, our 
presses, as you will see, are the North American make; and not' 
from the branch factory in England." And so [continues Mr. 
Winter] I found as we went through these offices, being taken 
from one floor to another on an American elevator, that the 
"copy" was being written up on typewriters, set up on linotype 
machines, and printed upon presses, all of United States manu- 
facture; the checks to the reporters were signed by fountain-pens 
and the cash received over the counters was rung up on cash 
registers from the same land. 

Good and sufficient reasons, too, based on excellence of 
quality and on perfect organization, and not on monopolistic 
domination, explain the universal use of American farm 
machinery and of some kinds of industrial machinery in 
Latin America. 

OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEN WITH SOME CAPITAL 

*'Big business" of the kind described above has little 
difficulty in making its way in Latin America. It is gener- 
ally influential enough to command a hearing from the 
highest governmental officials, is able to investigate the 
field carefully, can engage the services of the best experts, 
and has the resources for a long campaign of education 
and advertising, whenever these factors must be brought 
into play. But several other species of business still largely 
undeveloped by United States entrepreneurs offer excellent 
prospects and should soon attract American capital. 

It is not long since the interests represented by Mr. John 
McE. Bowman, which operate the Commodore, Belmont, 
Manhattan, and other hotels in New York and the Hotel 
Belleview at Belleair, Florida, projected their activities into 
Latin America by acquiring important hotel property in 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 319 

Cuba. Whether or not this company goes further toward 
erecting a chain of American hotels in Latin America, it 
is certain that splendid opportunities exist already in the 
metropolitan cities and may be foreseen in some of the 
smaller cities, especially in those along the line of the 
growing tourist travel and at the fashionable summer re- 
sorts. If British hotel promotors can put up splendid 
hotels in Buenos Aires comparable with the most sumptuous 
caravansaries in the United States, why cannot Americans 
do likewise? Buenos Aires and some of the smaller, but 
much frequented, cities of Argentina, Santiago, Montevideo, 
Sao Paulo, and, above all, Rio de Janeiro, are thriving cities 
and not oversupplied with modern hotel accommodations. 
Mar del Plata, Viiia del Mar, and Los Pocitos, in Argentina, 
Chile, and Uruguay, respectively, are the Bar Harbor or 
Newport of their countries, and are so located that they 
serve highly populous urban centers. If one may judge 
from the past, the demand for hotels there cannot help 
increasing. Mr. Winter, who has already been quoted in 
this chapter, gives a graphic description of the congestion 
at Mar del Plata at the time of his visit. 

With all the increase in hotel accommodation that has been 
provided in recent years, the hotels were full for weeks the past 
season, and it was almost impossible to secure accommodation 
unless one had friends, or arranged for it weeks ahead. The 
Hotel Bristol is the largest hotel in South America. There is a 
main building, which contains a spacious dining and ball room, 
and two annexes, each of which is as large as the average city 
block. The prices correspond with the magnificence of the fur- 
nishings. It is a night's run from Buenos Aires, and a day 
train is run on Saturdays and Tuesdays, which makes the trip 
in about seven hours. The night that I went there were five 
trains, each carrying fourteen sleepers, and all of them were full. 
The traffic has been just as great for almost a month. . . . Arrived 
at Mar del Plata, there was a close line of carriages almost a 
mile long waiting for "fares." As soon as one carriage was 
filled another moved up and took its place. 

Good hotels are, in fact, needed all over Latin America. 
They should prove a satisfactory investment not only in 
the large cities and at the summer-resorts, but also in the 



320 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

lake district of Chile and, possibly, in some of the historic 
regions of Peru. 

Other enterprises which require capital and should suc- 
ceed in many of the Latin American republics are depart- 
ment stores, "chain" stores for the sale of drugs and 
chemicals, stores dealing in office supplies and filing devices, 
photographic supply shops, "five and ten cent" stores, 
and various kinds of manufacturing businesses, such as the 
manufacture of paints and varnishes and of palm oil for 
soap or margarine purposes. Concerning the latter, the 
weekly Commerce Report of the United States Department 
of Commerce says, in its issue of November 28, 1921 : 

Outside capital is needed to develop the industry, and there 
is apparently a good opportunity for an American company to 
install a factory and control the trade [in Paraguay]. The Gov- 
ernment is favorably inclined toward capital, and at the present 
time labor is plentiful and cheap. 

To be sure, nearly every form of business and industry 
offers opportunities to the right man at the right time, 
and there is no special reason for ruling out some branches 
and emphasizing others. If Americans can give better 
prices, better quality, or better service, or aU three com- 
bined, than native shopkeepers, they stand excellent chances 
of building up their trade. On the other hand, Latin 
American merchants are extremely capable, and have the 
advantage of familiarity with the market and with the 
people, and a certain social contact: and because of these 
facts, Americans are generally warned against entering into 
competition in these branches unless heavily supplied with 
capital. The advice is, in general, good, though it need 
not be taken too literally. 

EUROPEAN DEPARTMENT STORES IN LATIN AMERICA 

Large and small businesses have always existed in Latin 
America : yet Harrods of London and several of the French 
houses, including the Au Bon Marche, An Printemps, Aux 
Galeries Lafayette, have already established flourishing de- 
partment stores in South America, and immigrants from; 
Italy, Germany, France, and England have built up 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 321 

businesses of importance. If the dread of competing with 
native or foreign firms had seemed an insuperable obstacle 
to American manufacturers and merchants, they would 
never have made any appreciable headway, and the 700 
or 800 new export commission houses which, acording to 
Mr. Ernest B. Filsinger in his Trading with Latin America, 
have entered the market since 1914, would have refrained 
from acting at the psychological moment. 

The world has not yet recuperated from the European 
War, and the door of opportunity in Latin America is still 
open. Failures and disappointments there undoubtedly are 
in the Latin American trade and industries, as elsewhere: 
but the thousands of considerable failures and the tens of 
thousands of small failures every year in the United States 
do not prevent the initiation and operation of new commer- 
cial and industrial enterprises. 

The many difficulties connected with Latin American 
trade are not peculiar to that region alone. They are in- 
cident to all foreign trading, as those most successful foreign 
traders, the British and the Germans, well know. The 
antidote to them is to be found only in the strict training 
in geography, history, language, and commercial practice, 
such as has been given in Germany, and in a certain tactful- 
ness and geniality, often innate, but often, also, acquired 
through contact and experience. In the era of foreign trad- 
ing which looms before us, nothing can be more vital to 
our success than persistent imitation of the German thor- 
oughness. 

IMMIGRANTS WHO BUILT UP FORTUNES IN LATIN AMERICA 

If the man without training, experience, or natural 
adaptability now stands little chance in the United States, 
it is logical to suppose that he will not stand a much greater 
chance in a strange environment. Nevertheless, it is not 
precisely true to say that the man who does not get ahead 
in the United States will necessarily fail in Latin America. 
Innumerable examples can be given of men who, either 
because of the restricted sphere in which thy moved in their 
own country or because of the lack of the needed stimula- 



322 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

tion to their latent capabilities, have vegetated at home, 
but made a dazzling success in Latin America. 

Pedro Luro, a Spanish Basque immigrant into Argentina, 
reached Buenos Aires, practically penniless. Like most 
of his countrymen, he was hard-working and thrifty. Com- 
prehending that the best opportunities in Argentina were 
offered by agriculture and ranching, he secured from the 
Government one hundred square leagues of land, or 625,000 
acres, at three and one-half cents per acre, with excellent 
terms for payment, and brought over fifty Basque families 
to colonize the tract. He became immensely wealthy, be- 
sides making millionaires of some of his associates. On 
his death, he left an estate of a million acres, stocked with 
hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle and richly pro- 
ductive in grains. 

Francisco Schmidt, a poor German immigrant, came to 
Brazil, intent on improving his financial condition. Coffee 
naturally appealed to him as the road to fortune in Brazil. 
Beginning on a small scale, he bought up coffee fazendas 
and extended his holdings in accordance with the limited 
means at his disposal. To-day, Francisco Schmidt is the 
largest individual owner of coffee plantations in the world. 
There are thirteen million coffee-trees on his lands, which 
produce from 200,000 to 250,000 sacks of the fragrant berry 
each year. 

M. Hilleret, of whom M. Clemenceau speaks several times, 
landed in Argentina without funds and went to work as 
a laborer on the railways. Gifted with vision, he watched 
the growing importance of the sugar industry in Tucuman, 
and determined to acquire a share in it. To interest others 
in his plans was no easier than it is to-day to obtain capital 
for an undertaking proposed by a man outside the charmed 
circle of professional finance. Cattle and cereals seem to 
constitute the natural wealth of Argentina, and sugar-cane 
would seem to present better prospects of sudden wealth 
further north, in the direction of the equatorial belt. But 
M. Hilleret foresaw the effect of protection on home-grown 
sugar and persisted in his project for putting up a sugar 
factory, which he finally succeeded in erecting at Santa 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 323 

Ana. The fortune which he left at his death amounted to 
100,000,000 francs, or about $20,000,000. 

In 1872 an American citizen by the name of Piper es- 
tablished the town of Gibbon in the Purus region of Bolivia, 
at the mouth of the Araca River. At the beginning of 
1878, the number of inhabitants in this fertile region, ac- 
cording to Senor Beltran y Rozpide, was 8,000 and one of 
the important articles of exportation was rubber, the annual 
sale of which amounted to $2,000,000. Ten years later, the 
population of the district had increased to 50,000 souls, 
rubber was exported to the value of about $4,500,000, and 
other crops had been developed to a point of importance. 
It is to Piper, the American, that the foundation of the 
first agricultural centers along the Purus River is due. 

Not altogether uncommon in Latin America is the follow- 
ing picture of hard-won economic independence gained by 
simple, thrifty folk from Europe, often unlettered and 
unskilled, whose only aids have been their hands and the 
ambition to obtain in the New World what would forever 
have been kept from them in the Old World — land and k 
competency : 

Our two nearest estanciero neighbors are a native and a Basque j 
small estancias both, of about four thousand acres. Of good 
sturdy peasant stock is the Basque, hard bitten and thrifty; he 
began life, they say, as a chacrero in a small way, and is now 
believed to be worth half a million dollars. A brother and his 
old mother share his untidy, unpretentious house; they keep no 
indoor servants (mother does the washing), mind their own busi- 
ness, and have evidently no desire to cut a figure in any kind 
of society. 

Instances of this sort are probably exceptional in Latin 
America, as they are everywhere in the world to-day; but 
they are a legitimate offset to the all too prevalent state- 
ments made to the effect that there is nothing in store for 
the man who goes to Latin America with but a few hundred 
dollars, a pair of strong arms, and the determination to 
make his way. They are proof, too, that the best oppor- 
tunities are in the land and in the produce of the land. 



324 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

splendid agricultural, opportunities for the *' average 

man" 

It is still true that fertile land is cheaper in Latin 
America than in other portions of the Western Hemisphere, 
that crops are more abundant, that the climate in many- 
regions is more benignant than in the northern continent 
outside of the southern and southwestern sections and that 
many districts in the tropical and subtropical zones, because 
of their elevation, are really temperate both as to tempera- 
ture and as to the articles which may be cultivated, and 
that labor is in general cheaper and more plentiful. 

The great drawback for the present is insufficient trans- 
portation. Railroads, nevertheless, are multiplying, the 
"good roads" movement has invaded Latin America, and 
new ports are being constructed. 

Those who take advantage of the present favorable 
conditions in land in Latin America will probably have 
cause to congratulate themselves on their foresight. Fifty 
years from now the notion of Latin America as an area 
prodigal in land opportunities will have begun to vanish. 

Heretofore, all the Latin American propaganda in the 
United States has been devoted to commercial opportuni- 
ties. This was appropriate in view of the extraordinary 
conditions brought on by the European War, and our 
merchants have risen to the heights expected of them. 
But, as the Latin American countries become more self- 
sustaining industrially, many of the industrial and com- 
mercial branches in which we predominate will lose some 
of their importance, and foreign competition will neces- 
sarily cut into the volume of our trade. The contingency 
is not immediate, perhaps: but the measures which must 
be taken in order to forestall a remote contingency often 
have to be immediate. The solution for many of our future 
commercial, social, and political relations with Latin 
America lies in an extension of our own nationality into 
the Latin American countries through the medium of 
immigration. 

It is quite commonly agreed that, if Mexico enjoyed a 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 325 

government capable of inspiring absolute confidence and 
propitious to foreign colonization, immigration from the 
United States would assume the aspect of a rapid torrent, 
so widespread is the conviction that the agricultural and 
cattle-raising opportunities in Mexico are far superior to 
those now obtainable in most of our States. Whatever 
the ideas of men like Mr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the 
celebrated explorer, may be with regard to the inevitable 
trend of population and settlement northward, in the 
United States the trend appears to be westward and south- 
ward. The simple reason is that we are growing land- 
hungry and are likely to meet the least resistance in those 
directions. As a much underpopulated country with a 
great variety of climates and natural resources, Mexico, 
lying at our borders, is sure to exert a great attractive 
power upon us. Practically speaking, it offers unlimited 
opportunities in the growing of cereals, sugar, coffee, 
tobacco, fruits, henequen fiber, cotton, the raising of cat- 
tle, and the exploitation of minerals and oil. 

There is still room for expansion in the West Indies: 
and those who believe in Florida as a site for permanent 
settlement because of its sunny climate would find no diffi- 
culty in getting along in the neighboring emerald islands 
of Cuba, the Isle of Pines, Santo Domingo, or Porto Rico. 
The Isle of Pines is a contented American settlement 
drawing a competency from its citrus fruits and its truck 
gardening : and Cuba, Porto Eico, and to a certain extent, 
Santo Domingo are the home of many Americans who, 
from a small investment, have developed orange, grape- 
fruit, pineapple, tobacco, and coffee plantations into a 
paying business under conditions that impose no greater 
hardships in the way of personal labor required, capital 
invested, or length of time demanded before tangible 
returns may be expected than similar enterprises started 
in Florida or California. 

The advice given and the suggestions made by the 
Department of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor of Cuba 
indicate the pitfalls and the merits of farming in the sub- 



326 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

tropics and apply, in general, to all the West Indies and 
Central America. 

Free government lands are rare or entirely non-existent : 
but ''many excellent mountain lands are held in large 
tracts of from 10,000 to 50,000 acres by non-resident 
owners," "can be purchased at prices varying from $5.00 
to $10.00 per acre, and if located within a reasonable dis- 
tance of the sea coast, or good harbors, are really worth 
many times that amount," and ''are usually well watered 
and covered with soil that is adapted to the growing of 
coffee, cacao, citrus fruits, mangos, grapes, and in fact, 
any fruit known to the tropical world. They will also 
support most of our forage crops and hence can be used 
advantageously as small stock farms and goat ranches." 
Much of the sandy land hitherto pronounced worthless 
has been made to yield a profit of from $100 to $200 an 
acre through the miracle of the Burbank spineless cactus. 

Though many of the elements of expense in farming 
in the United States, such as the cost of fuel, the need of 
heavy clothing, the upkeep of expensively constructed 
farm buildings capable of withstanding the cold and the 
storms of winter, are eliminated in Cuba and the other 
subtropical countries, farming on a small scale requires 
the same attention to detail and the same business man- 
agement which are observable in modern farming in the 
United States. 

Under good business management, according to the 
Cuban bureau referred to, garden truck will yield from 
$100 to $400 per acre, oranges, according to maturity, 
from $50 to $500 per acre, and sugar cane up to $800 
per acre. Cuba, too, is favored by several special circum- 
stances not found in the subtropical countries as a whole. 
Havana is at no great distance from any part of the 
island, is the busiest port on the Western Hemisphere 
except New York, and schedules the sailing of 32 steam- 
ships a week to the United States. In addition, the island 
is well supplied with transportation facilities, having 2600 
miles of railroads, 250 miles of electric railways, and 1246 
miles of magnificent automobile highways. The average 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 327 

January temperature is 70.3 degrees Fahrenheit, and the 
average July temperature 82.4 degrees. In health sta- 
tistics, Cuba ranks first among all the countries of the 
world, showing but 12.54 deaths per thousand. 

Something of a like nature may be said for most of 
the West Indies and for certain sections of Central 
'America. 

The larger agricultural projects and those more re- 
sembling agricultural undertakings in the United States 
are, of course, to be found in South America. Until the 
present, citizens of the United States have occupied them- 
selves only slightly with the possibilities there. Most of 
the settlement has been effected by the millions of Spanish, 
Italian, and German immigrants. The great deterrent to 
Americans, evidently, has lain in the lack of confidence 
of United States citizens in the stability of the South 
American governments, in their reluctance to ''rough it," 
and in their assumption that titles in Latin America are 
not adequately protected. Such considerations, however, 
have not hindered Europeans from taking up the land, 
and cases of injustice or interference on the part of Latin 
American governments or individuals have been rare. 

COLONIZATION CONDITIONS 

It may now be said confidently that with few exceptions 
the South American republics are as desirable for coloniza- 
tion purposes as any countries in the world. The colony 
reported to have been started recently by Mr. C. Dunbar 
Smith of Nebraska City, Nebraska, on an extensive grant 
in Bolivia and the numerous applications received by the 
Argentine Government this year from United States 
citizens for allotments in the tract of 16,000,000 acres 
opened up in different sections of the republic for the 
establishment of colonies demonstrate that the American 
attitude toward agricultural settlement in South America 
is changing — though all too slowly. 

The terms upon which land may be secured in South 
America are nearly uniform in all the republics, from 
Venezuela to Argentina. A few of the stipulations made 



328 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

by the various governments may be illustrated by ex- 
amples taken from the colonization and immigration laws 
of Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. 

In Venezuela a colonization company or individual 
may secure a section of land (20 kilometers, or about 
12 miles, square) under certain conditions, among which 
the following are the more important : that it shall place at 
least 100 agricultural families on its land within two years ; 
that it shall give each family a lot of 25 hectares (hectare = 
2.471 acres) plus 10 hectares for each child above ten years 
of age ; that it shall provide free lodging for a year to each 
family ; that it shall advance implements, cattle, seeds, etc., 
to an amount not exceeding 1000 bolivar es {bolivar = about 
20 cents), exact not more than 10% simple interest on the 
advance made, and require repayment only in 5 annual 
installments beginning with the end of the second year; 
and that it shall deposit 25,000 holivares or security for 
that sum as a guarantee that the contract with the govern- 
ment will be carried out. The cost of transportation of the 
immigrants from the port of embarkation will be borne 
by the Venezuelan Government. Immigrants enjoy all the 
rights appertaining to strangers, and, if they become 
naturalized citizens, are exempted from military service 
during their lifetime except in the case of an international 
war. In that case, they will not be obliged to bear arms 
against their original country. 

The National Land Law (No. 4167) of Argentina stipu- 
lates the following: 

Article 2. . . . The area of each agricultural lot shall not 
exceed one hundred hectares and that of each pastoral lot shall 
not exceed two thousand five hundred hectares, and not more than 
two agricultural lots or one pastoral lot shall be granted to one 
person or corporation. 

The remaining lands shall be let on lease or disposed of by 
public sale, such sales not to exceed in the aggregate one thousand 
kilometric square leagues in each year and to be effected upon 
such terms as to time for payment and other conditions as the 
Executive Power may determine, but the sale price shall not be 
under forty cents gold or one dollar national currency per hectare 
as a minimum, payable within five years as a maximum, with 
interest at the rate of six per cent per annum. . . , 




SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF CAPACABANA, ON BOLIVIAN SHORE OF 
LAKE TITICACA. 




TOWN AND MOUNTAIN OF POTOSJ, BOLIVIA. 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 329 

Article 3. . . . The Executive Power is hereby authorized to 
deliver the definitive title to purchasers who shall have paid in 
cash one-sixth of the purchase price and shall have complied with 
the conditions laid down for settling and stocking, the property 
being charged on mortgage for the amount of the bill to be signed 
for the instalments due. . . . 

Lessees and acquirers are obliged to stock their holdings 
and to erect building upon them to the value of at least 
five hundred dollars national currency (one dollar national 
currency — $.42, normal exchange) per kilometric league. 
The minimum price for each town lot is to be ten dollars 
currency and that of agricultural lots (chacras) or garden 
lots (quintas) two dollars and fifty cents per hectare, pay- 
able in six annual instalments. Acquirers of town lots 
must fence them in and build a dwelling on them within 
a year : and grantees of chacras or quintas must within two 
years build a dwelling and cultivate the land according 
to certain prescriptions. Authorization is vested in the 
Executive Power to make to first settlers gratuitous grants 
not exceeding one-fifth part of the town lots and of those 
intended for agricultural or pastoral colonies. Immigrants 
are lodged without charge and given free board at the 
Immigrants Hotel, receive medical attendance free, and are 
sent to their destination under the care of immigration 
of&cials and without cost. 

Similar provisions are made by the colonization laws 
of Bolivia and Brazil. Immigrants into Bolivia — namely, 
any foreign workingmen, agriculturalists, or artisans de- 
siring to settle in Bolivia — are transported to their des- 
tination free of charge, allowed free entry for their bag- 
gage, implements and utensils, and given the free choice 
of a plot of 124 acres of land at a price equivalent to 
about 10 cents per acre. 

The Brazilian Government, which is the most active in 
fostering colonization and maintains a propaganda service 
in Europe, likewise furnishes free transportation from 
Europe or America to the locality in Brazil chosen by 
the immigrant, provides temporary lodgings and food 
and medical attendance, supplies the immigrant with 



330 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

necessary implements, animals, and seeds, and offers for 
sale at long credit "a plot of land properly divided and 
marked out with one portion of it cleared and prepared 
for preliminary cultivation, and a house erected with the 
necessary domestic accommodations." The Brazil Eail- 
way Company has for some time been cooperating with 
the Government in attracting desirable settlers. 

In this day and age, no intending colonizer of unsettled 
territory will, it is taken for granted, harbor vain expecta- 
tions as to the conditions in which he will have to live 
until he has developed his property. 

Even in the United States, government lands are often 
away from the beaten track of transportation and com- 
munciation, the environment is primitive, and the life is 
lonesome for those who do not constantly keep busy or 
find sources of cheerfulness in their domestic circle. In 
Latin America, this is the rule rather than the exception, 
and the ordinary inconveniences are aggravated by the 
fact that the language and customs are foreign to Ameri- 
cans and that not many Americans have, as yet, taken up 
land in Latin America. Hence, community colonization 
of the sort carried on so successfully by the Germans 
should prove more satisfactory than individual settle- 
ment. The I^atin American governments are, almost with- 
out exception, favorable to this colonizing method and 
usually offer special inducements for its encouragement. 

BENEFICIAL INTERNATIONAL RESULTS OP COLONIZATION 

The value of foreign settlements represented by emigra- 
tion has been demonstrated from the commercial and 
political standpoints by Germany, Spain, and England 
A benefit not usually taken into account, which, for the 
United States, surpasses even the commercial and political 
advantages, is the effect of intimate social contact on our 
judgment of Latin Americans and on their judgment of 
us. Wherever there are settlements of Americans in Latin 
American countries, mutual respect and tolerance have 
sprung up between the two nationalities. 

The fear of American hegemony would be much reduced 



The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 331 

if more Americans had home interests in Latin America 
and if as a nation we seemed less given to merely super- 
ficial exploitation. 

The advice given by Mr. Eoger Babson to our business- 
men will apply thoroughly in a more general sense : 

If the people of the United States hope to do anything per- 
manent in South America, they must adopt the German apprentice 
system, under which the best young men go to foreign fields 
for periods of ten or more years, often marrying native women 
and sometimes settHng down for life. Our hasty methods have 
already made us looked down upon as "four-flushers and bluffers." 
We ought either to stop talking about South America, or send 
our young men down there to stay and solve the problems seriously 
as do the young men of Germany and England. 

Commercial, industrial, and agricultural settlement in 
Latin America is a step which should logically follow our 
growing trade and political relations with Latin America 
and the gradually decreasing opportunities for men of 
small means in the United States. It should be accompanied 
by the establishment of American newspapers similar to 
the English "Express," the ''Uruguay Weekly News," and 
the ''Times" of Uruguay, the "Eiver Plate Observer" of 
Buenos Aires, and the "West Coast Leader" of Lima; by 
an expansion of American scientific research, investigation, 
and expert advice; and by the establishment of American 
schools in Latin American cities. 

The feeling expressed by Dr. Lauro Miiller, former 
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, with regard to the 
location of American schools in Latin America is shared 
by many prominent Latin Americans: 

But there is another thing which you people could do that 
would serve as a wonderful means of bringing us together. It 
is sort of a pet project of mine. I referred to it Avhen in your 
country in 1913. It is that some of the business men representing 
the alumni of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and your other univer- 
sities, club together and start a real "American" college in Rio 
de Janeiro. . . . We need a real big affair here in Rio de Janeiro 
with professors from your country teaching the English language 
and the North American ways to our boys. 

Several excellent American schools already established 



332 The Field of Opportunity in Latin America 

and highly popular in various Latin American cities, among 
which should be mentioned the branch of Boston University 
at Havana, vouch for the practicability of Dr. Miiller's 
suggestion. 

Societies exist in Europe for the benefit of prospective 
settlers and immigrants who need advice about Latin 
America. Various bureaus are maintained in the European 
capitals for the purpose of imparting commercial and gen- 
eral information and with a view to interesting Europeans 
in the Latin American republics. A Brazilian journal is 
published in Paris, and an eminent Italian statesman has 
recently visited Brazil in order to enlist support for the 
Italian newspaper *'I1 Mondo," which proposes to become 
the mouthpiece of Italians on both sides of the Atlantic. 
The Argentine Republic commissioned Don Vicente Blasco 
Ibanez, the author of The Four Horsemen of tine Apoca- 
lypse, to write a volume on the Greatness of Argentina 
for dissemination in Spain. In one way or another, close 
contact between Latin America and Europe is kept alive; 
to many districts in Europe, ''America" has come to mean 
Latin America or South America, and not North America ; 
and Europeans are encouraged to think of South America 
as a possible future home. 

Much work of this nature should be undertaken in the 
United States. Especially useful would be a central bureau 
capable of giving definite information and impartial advice 
on industrial, agricultural, and educational opportunities 
in Latin America. An ' ' opportunities bureau ' ' would sup- 
plement in an important way the labors of the Pan Amer- 
ican Union. 



CHAPTER XIV 

AS LATIN AMERICANS SEE US 

To most Latin Americans we are still ''Yankees" 
(yanquis). 

The European notion of the citizen of the United States, 
in vogue about the middle of the nineteenth century and 
represented accurately enough, though subjected to some 
of the slapstick touches of comedy, by Sardou's L'OncIe 
Sam and Les Femmes Fortes, is still in the main the Latin 
American view of us as people with distinctive racial 
characteristics or national traits. 

Our cartoonists and tourists have left in Europe an image 
of the typical American which is almost indelible. Trans- 
planted to Latin America under European auspices, this 
image has become not only a symbol, but a reality. Shrewd 
"Uncle Sam" in his nondescript, patriotic uniform of the 
old Yankee Doodle days and brought down to date by the 
addition of the Rooseveltian ''big stick" subsists in the 
mental vision of Latin Americans as a prejudgment which 
every individual American can dissipate only through 
actual, corporal presence and agreeable personal qualities. 

The persistence of the "Uncle Sam" conception may be 
explained on several grounds. 

"Uncle Sam" was accepted by ourselves as a national 
trade-mark or brand when New England dominated our 
national life. The features and attitude of "Uncle Sam" 
therefore reflect the sharp facial characteristics and the 
spare form of those unmitigated, ingenious traders of our 
East Coast — the Phoenicians of the New World. "Were 
a composite national trade-mark to be designed now, the 
picture would have to be quite different. The more stal- 
wart frame and the broader lineaments of the citizens of 
the central and western states cannot be compressed within 

333 



334 As Latin Americans See Us 

the lines of ' ' Uncle Sam, ' ' and, moreover, the youthfulness, 
the boldness, and the ' ' breeziness ' ' of our Westerners would 
ill comport with the elderly and rather pinched expression 
of the traditional "Uncle Sam." 

WHY WE ARE "tHE AMERICANS" 

A Latin American, then, who has never seen an Amer- 
ican, or has seen only types resembling the national cartoon, 
will almost necessarily visualize us in the one mold of the 
New England trader of a past age: and Latin American 
politicians and writers who wish to perpetuate this image 
of us, along with the invidious phrase ' ' dollar diplomacy, ' ' 
will perforce term us yanquis, just as our own unwitting 
citizens are so often prone to term all Latin Americans 
"natives," " spiggotties, " and "greasers." Chauvinism 
and jingoism are always ready to generalize their animus 
in the shape of a derogatory catchword or brand. 

But a legitimate and innocuous reason also underlies 
the use of the term yanqui. It is almost impossible to form 
a euphonious adjective or noun of nationality from the 
compound "United States" — unless we were to adopt the 
none too harmonious expression ' ' United Statesian. ' ' Even 
that would be open to objection, for there are the United 
States of Mexico in North America and the United States 
of Venezuela and the United States of Brazil in South 
America. The suggestion that we adopt the appellation 
"Usona" (United States of North America) — which would 
probably make us "Usonans" or "Usonians" — has met 
with no popular favor. What, then, is there left for Latin 
Americans to call us except yanquis, even when no feeling 
of hostility is insinuated into the termf 

The attempt is now being made, chiefly, it appears, 
through the efforts of the Pan American Union, to natural- 
ize among Spanish-speaking peoples a distinctive name for 
us which shall not wound the sensibilities of other Amer- 
icans in the Western Hemisphere and shall still have the 
flavor of Spanish terminology. Estadunidense or estado- 
unidense (pertaining to the United States, or an inhabitant 
of the United States) has received some acceptance in news- 



As Latin Americans See Us 335 

papers, magazines, and text books, and may, it is hoped, 
finally displace yanqui and even americano. Its use should 
certainly be encouraged in Latin America, for yanqui is 
not flattering to us, and americano, apparently arrogated to 
ourselves, is more distasteful to the other Americans than 
we can have any idea of. 

If estadunidense succeeds in becoming a common Spanish 
word, we shall have the novel experience of being indebted 
to foreigners for a most valuable term which we have thus 
far been unable to invent for ourselves. 

It is inconceivable to most of us that anybody should 
find fault with our choice of the name "American." We 
know, for our own part, that we did not steal anything 
belonging to others. "American" came to be applied to 
us in a perfectly natural historical way. The first country 
in the New World to evolve a nationality of its own was 
certain to have the appellation "American" fastened upon 
it. No deep laid plot was needed for filching the term 
from just claimants. We happened to constitute the 
earliest clear-cut nation; "United States" offered difficul- 
ties to the formation of derivatives; and the practice of 
the outside world was fully as potent as our own practice 
in dedicating "American" to our uses. 

Judging, however, from the almost universal feeling in 
Latin America, we grabbed "American" without so much 
as a " by-your-leave, "in complete accord with our ' ' well 
known" grabbing propensities. Many are the pages of 
burning invective which have been filled with denunciation 
of our egregious conceit in calling ourselves "Americans," 
to the hurt and damage of the other Americans : and many 
are the shifts used by meticulous Latin Americans and 
Spaniards to avoid conceding to us the right to the term. 

"The prestige of the United States," remarks Seiior F. 
Garcia Calderon in his vigorous book, Latin America: Its 
Rise and Progress, published in 1913, "their imperialism, 
and their wealth, have cast a shade over the less orderly 
Latin republics of the south. The title of America seems 
to be applied solely to the great imperial democracy of 
the North." Throughout his undeniably acute and re- 



336 As Latin Americans See Us 

markable work, therefore, Sefior Calderon conscientiously 
evades "American" wherever possible and substitutes 
''North American," "Yankee," "the Anglo-Saxons ox 
America, " " the people of the United States. ' ' Surely, the 
feeling of resentment against the restriction of "Amer- 
ican" to us must be high when a man of Seiior Calderon 's 
position and talent finds it incumbent upon him to torture 
his vocabulary to such an extent merely to escape the use 
of a commonly accepted term which arouses no special 
debate outside of Latin American and Spain ! 

The question at issue, though it may appear insignificant 
to us, is really important because it represents a typical 
point of view. If there is something inherently offensive 
to Latin Americans in the application of "American" to 
us, we must do something about it. We cannot eradicate 
the antagonism by simply asserting that we have the name 
and do not care what the Latin Americans think. If Latin 
American friendship or Pan Americanism means anything 
to us, we may at least try to allay ill feeling on this score 
by undertaking a campaign of education as to the historical 
origin and growth of the custom of limiting "American" 
to us. 

On just such trifles is sentimental hostility between 
nations often built. An analysis of the Latin American 
appreciation of American character and social ideals shows 
that while intelligent opinion has an adequate comprehen- 
sion of our real virtues and merits, popular opinion, which 
is only too frequently neither intelligent nor intelligible, 
misunderstands us because disproportionate emphasis is 
laid on superficial appearances or on prejudiced impres- 
sions which have become an integral element of the Latin 
American criticism of foreign life. To know the common 
reactions of Latin Americans to American stimuli is to 
know Latin America better, and, perhaps, to know ourselves 
a little more impartially. 

Taking their cue partly from the "Yankee" idea, partly 
from our intense preoccupation with commerce, our boasted 
plebeian or democratic origin, mode of life, and political 
and social habits, the architecture of our metropolitan cities, 



As Latin Americans See Us 337 

our apparent nervous haste in everything that we do, in- 
cluding eating, and our extensive advertising methods, and 
partly from the superannuated, but still extant, old-world 
European conception of us as a nation of somewhat uncouth 
and blundering Philistines, the Latin Americans have fabri- 
cated a standard image of us, on the pedestal of which 
might be carved the all illuminating dollar sign. 

The average educated Latin American professes to ex- 
plain our entire psychology and our entire social structure 
principally by our interest in the dollar. Why do we 
pursue a certain — or uncertain — political policy ? Because 
of the dollar? Why our sky-scrapers? Because of the 
dollar? Why the particular forms which our luxuries 
take ? Because of the dollar. Why our artistic monuments, 
our great athletic stadiums, our style of clothes, our Pull- 
man cars, our crowded universities, our literature? Be- 
cause of the dollar. 

THE EUROPEAN LEGACY OF DEPRECIATION 

The science of human behavior, everywhere else so com- 
plex, becomes wonderfully simplified, in the minds of many 
Latin Americans, when applied to the people of the United 
States; for the motives of American action and thought 
are few and transparent. The dollar, a shrewd naivete, 
and something like "Yankee luck" explain what we are 
and what we have become. 

I cannot think [writes the fictitious Chilean of Seiior Tancredo 
Pinochet's clever satire] what they do in the schools of this 
country, since no culture or manners are taught. Their only 
object appears to be that of preparing the individual to make 
the dollar : a species of aggressiveness in business. On no account 
would I consent to have my children educated here. 

We have heard that, of course, before, and much more 
besides. It is the echo of the old European appraisal of 
America and Americans. Lack of culture, lack of manners, 
lack of an artistic tradition, lack of a historical past, lack 
of an aristocracy, have made us a multitude of newly rich, 
of arrant materialists. We simply have no taste for the 
^U^v things, and are condemned by our natipn^l ideal? 



338 As Latin Americans See Us 

to a coarse existence unbrightened by the rainbow of fancy, 
of delicacy, of poetic romance. Our population is made 
up chiefly of immigrants who came here to improve their 
condition: and what can be expected of them? 

But here, as in so many phases of life, it is necessary 
to make distinctions. Not all Latin Americans are con- 
vinced that we are Philistines, and not all believe that our 
acts of political intervention liave had a purely selfish 
motive or resulted only in exploitation for our own profit 
or aggrandizement. 

The number of Latin Americans who come into personal 
contact with citizens of the United States is increasing 
steadily and rapidly: and in the vast majority of cases 
esteem and respect follow any acquaintanceship that is 
more than cursory. Latin American students who frequent 
our schools and colleges, if they choose to enter into the 
social life about them, carry away with them a real admira- 
tion for our school system, for Americanism in general, 
and for individuals in particular. Latin American writers 
and lecturers who have visited us acknowledge that they 
have been treated with signal hospitality, and admit the 
scholarly ability and intellectual honesty of our thinkers. 
Men and women from Latin America who attend the 
various congresses in which delegates from all the Amer- 
ican republics take part have nothing but praise for the 
mental breadth, sincerity, humanitarian spirit, and culture 
and personal charm of the Americans with whom they dis- 
cuss matters of common interest and by whom they are 
entertained. In the main, too, though with numerous dis- 
heartening exceptions, our businessmen have made a favor- 
able impression on Latin American businessmen, and the 
qualities which characterize the best American business 
dealings are prized in Latin America almost as highly as 
the proverbial British traits. 

Rarely has a Latin American serious fault to find with 
any respectable American whom he has come to know rather 
intimately. 

Criticism is usually directed against us as a mass, and 
not as individuals. The most prolific criticism, naturally, 



As Latin Americans See Us 339 

has to do with our politics : and yet, excluding men of the 
past like Sarmiento, who idolatrized everything originating 
in the United States, many modern Latin Americans, while 
intimating that our political actions are not wholly altru- 
istic, are ready to render justice to our real achievements. 
Don Alfredo Colmo, a gifted Argentine contemporary, 
demonstrates an earnest desire to see chiefly good in our 
much discussed supervision of the Dominican Republic. 

Of the following I have evidence [he states in a curious article 
entitled Pan Americanism and Company and reprinted in Inter- 
America] : that the North American occupation has aroused the 
opposition of the Dominican politicians alone. The rest of the 
population not only has not regretted its presence, but, in some 
cases, it has gone so far as to praise it and request that it 
continue. So it is with the journalists, who have enjoyed a liberty 
they did not have before for the expression of their opinions. 
So it is with the merchants and industrials, who have been able 
to develop in a confidence and security that have resulted from 
a condition undisturbed by revolts, formerly only too frequent. 
It is so too with the people in general, who have been brought 
face to face with progressive educational enterprises that they 
had not seen thitherto. 

If the suspicions of the common run of Latin American 
politicians for the past fifty years had been confirmed by 
facts, the United States would now be in actual possession 
of more Latin American territory than Porto Rico and the 
Panama Canal Zone. That we have not gone further, when 
it was easily possible for us to do so, has made many Latin 
Americans wonder if we have not really been sincere in 
disclaiming any desire for territory not belonging to us. 

In addition, those who reflect have realized that even 
Porto Rico and the Canal Zone came beneath the Amer- 
ican flag under practically unavoidable circumstances and 
in a not unworthy manner. The Spanish downfall in Cuba 
meant that Porto Rico would go to some ofher foreign 
power. What was more logical than that it should be taken 
under the wing of the United States, which, moreover, paid 
something for it, has granted its inhabitants American 
citizenship, and has given it a liberal government? The 
Canal Zone, though serving the United States, does not be- 



340 As Latin Americans See Us 

long in any legal sense to our government, and the privileges 
connected with it are being paid for by annual payments 
to the Republic of Panama. The Danish West Indies, now- 
known as the Virgin Islands, lying within the Latin 
America area, were bought by the United States at a price 
acceptable to the former owners. 

The imperial American bugaboo conjured up so fre- 
quently by liatin American orators is recognized by fair- 
minded Latin Americans as a mere phantom : and the fear 
of the extension of American territory over Latin America 
has begun to subside among trained observers. Even such 
episodes as President "Wilson's unfortunate note to Chile 
, and Peru, sent while he was on his way to Paris, are now 
regarded as but transitory incidents begotten of special 
circumstances or personal feeling, and not representative 
of either official or public sentiment. 

A NEW POLITICAL VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES 

It may, indeed, be declared with some assurance that 
a new political view of the United States is coming into 
being among thoughtful Latin Americans. Instead of per- 
sisting in the notion that the United States is avid for 
new territorial possessions in the lands to the south, the 
idea is becoming current that the United States, like Great 
Britain, is intent only on the expansion of its commerce. 
If this belief should become the popular one in Latin 
America, and if the integrity of Mexico — the touchstone of 
our sincerity in Latin American affairs — is left undisturbed, 
much of the hostility and suspicion hanging over from the 
past will disappear within a comparatively short time, and 
our interest in Latin America will be accepted on a par 
with British, French, Spanish, and German interests. 

Between our culture and Latin American culture there 
is, of course, no such material antagonism as there is 
presumed to be between our political aims and the political 
aspirations of Latin America. Nevertheless, as the 
vehemence of political denunciation against the United 
States wanes, the emphasis on cultural differences appears 
tg become more marked, 



As Latin Americans See Us 341 

To listen to some Latin Americans, one would suppose 
that the United States is endeavoring to submerge the 
traditional customs, manners, and tastes of their country- 
men beneath a superstructure of hated foreign culture or 
Kultur. Yet no evidence is at hand of any malevolent 
ambitions on the part of the United States in this direction, 
in spite of the truth, as Don Luis Pascarella, of Argentina, 
points out, that in many externals the United States has 
been supplanting European usages : 

It may be aflSrmed that between 1904 and 1910 all our shoe 
factories — for example — adopted American machinery. Foot wear 
itself abandoned the traditional Franco-English last and adopted 
that of the north. Furniture connected with the several branches 
of business replaced the old varieties that had been supplied by 
Europe. Sectional book shelves to meet all requirements were 
substituted, with evident advantage, for the heavy and incon- 
venient cabinets. 

Furthermore, the American business suit for men, the 
American hat for men and women, American shop arrange- 
ments, and the American plate-glass store-front have made 
their way in many countries of Latin America. But always, 
the acceptance of American innovations has come spon- 
taneously, and without any other pressure than American 
salesmanship. 

AMERICAN ' * KULTUR ' ' ? 

It is well to insist on this detail now, for the cry will 
undoubtedly be raised later of attempts by the United 
States to cram its Kulture down the throats of the weaker 
Latin American nations. 

What, then, is this defective cultural condition in the 
United States which Latin Americans criticise and Amer- 
ican writers and travelers often deplore after visiting the 
Latin American republics ? Is it the result of some inherent 
incapacity or only of appearances which grate on a Latin 
American used to the European ways of his own land or 
of Europe? 

The Latin American stepping off the ship at New York 
— unless he comes from Buenos Aires, where the noise and 



342 As Latin Americans See Us 

the bustle of a great metropolis are fully as overpowering 
as in any world mart — is immediately struck by a lack of 
respect for persons amounting to irreverence. 

In his own seaport, where he is known as an individual 
of consequence — for the traveler is naturally a gentleman 
of means and social standing, as is proved by the very 
fact that he is traveling in far places — he never fails to 
command attention and an almost feudal courtesy. Cus- 
toms officials harken deferentially to his requests, porters 
humbly await his orders, coachmen or taxicab drivers watch 
anxiously for the snap of his fingers or the lifting of his 
hand. If he is unknown at the Latin American port from 
which he embarks, his dress and his bearing infallibly 
disclose hjs elevated station, and tips well distributed bring 
him the service to which, in a land full of servants, where 
every household has more servants than it knows what to 
do with, he has always been accustomed. 

Here, in New York, in the midst of a strange jargon, 
he feels lost. He is jostled about like a nobody. If he does 
not pay close attention, he may be run over by a truck or 
an automobile. His conventional European clothes do not 
single him out for special civility, for the man in incon- 
spicuous tweeds next to him may be a multimillionaire. 
If he shows annoyance at any incident, he is answered back 
in a threatening tone. At the offices, he is shoved along a 
line without being able to enjoy special privileges or to 
indulge in a little leisurely sociability. If he manages to 
secure a taxicab, his feeling of conferring a favor is ruined 
by the conviction, forced upon him by the manner of the 
chauffeur, that, for some unaccountable reason and in spite 
of his unworthiness, he is being favored out of sheer luck. 

He goes to a hotel — a stupendous, crowded, glaring hotel. 
"No room," the clerk may tell him in a quick, aggressive 
tone. Mine host does not come to bow before him. The 
atmosphere is not homelike, cheerful — ^unless he manages 
to find a hotel devoted to the needs of Latin Americans, of 
which there are a few in New York. When he does succeed 
in securing accommodations, the superiority of our modern 
improvements somehow fails to impress him. It is all very 



As Latin Americans See Us 343 

well to know that he can get what he wants by a series of 
signals, but the personal element is sadly lacking. He 
resents the automatic character of American civilization, 
for he has not been used to it. To him it is as ridiculous 
as Quentin's description of it was to French audiences in 
1860, when Sardou's Les Femmes Fortes was one of the 
theatrical hits of the day. 

"Talk about your Opera tricks!" [exclaims the half -Ameri- 
canized Quentin in that comedy, who has just returned from 
the United States] "What a poor exhibition! You are in your 
room. You touch a button, and a speaking-tube cries at the other 
end of the hotel: 'Mr. Laehapelle wants a bootjack!' The boot- 
jack pops up instantaneously through the floor ! Or, 'Mr. Laeha- 
pelle wants to have his clothes brushed!' A little brush comes 
down from the ceiling and lovingly brushes you from head to 
foot. Do you want a bath? Turn that key! Your bed is 
transformed into a bath to the sound of delicious music. Tap 
here, and your lamp is extinguished! Knock there, and your 
fire is lit! Pull this cord: here is your newspaper! Push this 
plug : here's your soup ! Finally, touch this spring — your soiled 
shirt disappears through the chimney and comes back laundered 
through the bottom of the door !" 

Accustomed as we are to all our modern contrivances 
— our electric buttons, our steam radiators, our individual 
telephones, our valet service, and the like — we cannot 
understand how anybody with a grain of efficiency can 
affect to scorn them or to look on them with indifference. 

But the Latin American, like the average Frenchman, 
Italian, or Spaniard, does not pride himself on this par- 
ticular brand of efficiency. It is too mechanical, too cold, 
too destructive of human relationships. What, after all, 
does it contribute to life ? How much better is it, either, 
than the system to which he has been habituated? We. 
push a button : he orders a servant. We turn on the heat : 
he tells a servant to make a fire or to stir it up. We go 
down to the barbershop and sit in public in a stiff chair: 
he, if he wants to, asks the barber to come to his house and 
is shaved and trimmed in the comfort of his own room or 
verandah. We take the breath, the movement, and the 
color of life out of all our domestic arrangements in so 



844 As Latin Americans See Us 

far as we can by the exercise of Yankee ingenuity: he 
prefers to live in the midst of vivid, vivacious life itself 
— if the expression may be used. 

Efficiency! In the opinion of Latin Americans we are 
obsessed by that mania to the detriment of the best human 
instincts. 

Efficiency in our interpretation signifies extreme 
standardization, mass in place of individuality, and a fac- 
tory mode of existence. Efficiency makes us build huge 
edifices towering to the skies, from which air, light, flowers, 
and trickling fountains are excluded as non-essentials; 
theaters that are adjudged good or bad according to their 
seating capacity ; eating-houses that can be emptied of their 
occupants every few minutes; cities that are devoid of 
personality. Efficiency makes us slaves of the clock; 
quickens our step in the false notion that we are doing 
things more rapidly or getting more work accomplished; 
spoils the manners of shopmen and clerks; causes us to 
eat poorly cooked food; and induces us to convert our 
pleasures into timed tasks. We have lost the gift of the 
joy of living because we have supinely surrendered to the 
Frankenstein of a lock-step civilization. We are the 
apotheosis of a mechanical age and have allowed ourselves 
to become thoroughly mechanized, not only in a physical, 
but in a spiritual sense, as well. 

LATIN AMERICAN JUDGMENT OF OUR NEWSPAPERS 

Our ideas, according to Latin Americans, are, like our 
clothes, too frequently ready-made, or, to use a different 
simile, predigested. We do not, as a matter of fact, have 
individual, but only mass ideas. Therefore we judge 
en hloc. A few men in newspaper offices decide each 
evening what the American public shall think the next day 
and serve us our mental pabulum in the morning with the 
national proportions of sugar and milk: and those men 
receive their thoughts ready to serve from a still smaller 
number of men entrenched in government strongholds. 

Hence, when any question concerning Latin America, 
for example, arises, "inspired" opinions circulate with the 



As Latin Americans See Us 345 

rapidity of telegraphic communieation, the public has its 
mind made up for it before it has finished breakfast, and 
with a sublime confidence in the omniscience of its sources 
of information stands ready in unison to rebuke Chile, 
simply because Peru has flattered us by asking us to act 
as the mediator in the Pacific dispute, to assume a trustee- 
ship over Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Haitian funds, to 
enter Mexico, and to condemn Argentine merchants for 
neglecting to take up at once the American merchandise 
with which the market has been glutted. The newspapers 
do not furnish us with facts, but with decisions, and the 
freedom of the press is a euphemism for the freedom to 
print what is permitted. Nobody learns through American 
journalism the truth about Latin America. 
As Don Carlos Castro Ruiz suggests : 

With three or four pages dedicated to sports, American news- 
papers could spare some lines to furnish their readers with some 
material regarding South American activities. 

In Chile, in our newspapers, we have two columns of cabled 
news from the United States, daily. We are fully acquainted 
with American political, international and commercial life. 

Occasionally we find in American newspapers a cable from 
South America of the high importance of the following article 
printed in a New York paper : "Uruguay Admits American's Pet 
Dog." . . . 

Not a word have I seen regarding the new Chile-Argentino 
Transandean Railway, from Salta to Antofagasta, which will cross 
the Andes at a height of nine thousand feet. 

Because our ideas are stereotyped, we maintain an in- 
flexible attitude in intellectual matters wholly out of keep- 
ing with our recognized ductility in business affairs. The 
latest thing in commerce and industry we accept eagerly, 
even when the cost is considerable: the latest thing in 
ideas, whether it is free verse. Cubism, the Bergsonian 
philosophy, or the Einstein theory, we shun as a pest. We 
prefer to ''play safe." Our intellectual leaders must hide 
their original thought in the cryptic language of their 
learned periodicals after the fashion of Roger Bacon and 
his remarkable cipher. There exist by unwritten law a 
list of subjects which can publicly be discussed and a list 



346 As Latin Americans See Us 

of subjects which cannot be discussed publicly, "Ver- 
boten," though not plastered on barns, on the sides of 
houses, and on the inartistic sign-boards which deface our 
streets and landscapes, has become as prevalent a caution 
in the United States as it was in the palmy days of the 
German autocracy. 

Manifestly, such conclusions reached by a Latin Amer- 
ican visitor are true only up to a certain point and beyond 
that point are a libel on the American nation and on Amer- 
ican ideals. 

OUR METROPOLITAN CITIES NOT A FAIR STANDARD FOR 
AMERICAN LIFE AS A WHOLE 

It is true, and perhaps too true, that in our large cities 
we are no respecters of persons and are unlikely to bother 
about the quality of the individual with whom we are 
thrown into contact in our casual dealings; that we seem 
to exhibit a frantic haste and a brusqueness of manner due 
to the desire for quick ' ' turnovers ' ' and for instant service ; 
— though Miinsterberg 's comment, "It has often been 
observed, and especially remarked on by German observers, 
that in spite of his extraordinary tension, the American 
never overdoes. The workingman in the factory, for 
example, seldom perspires at his work. This comes from 
a knowledge of how to work so as in the end to get out of 
one's self the greatest possible amount," might furnish 
food for reflection to the Latin American critic;^ — that we 
build gigantic edifices which house whole villages and even 
cities and dwarf the individual into insignificance. But 
metropolitan cities the world over are notoriously careless 
of the individual, more kaleidoscopic and rapid than 
country towns, bewildering to strangers, and lamentably 
impersonal and heartless. Babylon, Rome, London, New 
iYork, and Buenos Aires, though remote in time or space 
or both, are essentially the same city, inhabited by the 
same people, and cursed by the same customs and manners. 
They stand in the same relation to the smaller cities and 
towns as overgrown corporations to the ordinary business- 
man. They are abstractions when taken as a whole, and 



As Latin Americans See Us 347 

everybody who passes through them is but a transient 
whose place will be taken by another transient. 

For the Latin American to judge us by our large cities 
is about as fair as it is for us to judge his country by its 
small cities, towns, and hamlets: and yet that is what is 
almost invariably done. We get ideas of abnormal slow- 
ness and painfully slow progress in Latin America, and 
the Latin American sees chiefly the rapids and whirlpools 
of American life. Neither of us is wholly right, and both 
of us are immeasurably wrong, unless we dwell in the 
foreign country a considerable length of time and in dif- 
ferent localities. 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AMERICAN AND LATIN AMERICAN 
INTELLECTUAL PERSPECTIVE 

Concerning our imperviousness to ideas per se, the Latin 
American is not as much at fault as we might wish him 
to be. 

In spite of the wide dissemination of education and the 
multiplication of public libraries, personal thinking is not 
startlingly noticeable among us. Perhaps we educate too 
rapidly: perhaps we read too much and too quickly. The 
fact is, indeed, that we are as a nation woefully under- 
educated in many respects and hardly on a level with the 
European or the Latin American. We lack that broad 
general training given to Europeans and Latin Americans 
in the schools of secondary instruction, possess less facts 
less surely — though exposed to enough facts, Heavens 
knows ! — and fail to acquire that philosophical breadth of 
vision which is one of the most lasting benefits of the 
European style of education. 

No doubt we surpass in numbers the Europeans or Latin 
Americans who have a fair knowledge of the rudiments 
of education: but we are far behind them in the relative 
proportion of our educated men and women who have a 
solid and liberal education. The graduate of a secondary 
school in Europe or Latin America generally seems much 
more mature, reflective, and scholarly than the graduate 
of our American secondary schools. 



348 As Latin Americans See Us 

That which grates most on the Latin American is our 
glorification of bulk as opposed to quality, and the ensuing 
kind of distinction which we take to ourselves. Every- 
thing that we do and are is big, bigger, biggest. We are 
the richest country in the world ; we have the tallest build- 
ings, the largest locomotives, the longest roster of 
millionaires, the biggest bridge, the most colossal dams, the 
greatest varieties of climates, the finest schools, the most 
expensive sewerage systems, and the most populous uni- 
versities; we give more, spend more, waste more than any 
other nation on earth. It is not necessary to present ar. 
accumulation of details on this head. We ourselves recog 
nize our failing — if failing it be. But we do not under^ 
stand why strangers should take offense. What we say 
is usually true: we have in fact the wealth, the men, the 
opportunities, the energy, and the confidence which we 
herald abroad. 

Furthermore, the insistence on such possessions raises 
our prestige. There is no reason why America or the 
Americans should take a back seat. Such a thing as 
national advertising has a definite value. Germany's fame 
and progress depended chiefly on the attention which she 
secured by national advertising: and Great Britain has 
owed not a small part of her position to her unceasing, if 
somewhat subtle, self-display. 

Undoubtedly the Latin American feels like a ' ' poor rela- 
tion" when he is among us. It is not always pleasant 
to "poor relations" to have the affluence and the magnifi- 
cence of their luckier kinsmen dinned into their' ears. Yet 
fundamentally the Latin American is not disturbed by that 
difference, for he knows that his own section of the globe 
lends itself to the same sort of propaganda. His dislike 
for our boastfulness is really based on his own character- 
istically Latin, or more precisely, French philosophy: and 
that philosophy is summed up in the phrase "Vhonnete 
homme ne se pique de rien," which may be rendered freely, 
'•gentlemen never show off." 

Nearly every educated or well-to-do Latin American 



As Latin Americans See Us S49 

«pends some years in Paris or hopes to do so. For him 
Bornier's splendid line, 

Every man has two countries, his own and France besides, 

is a solemn actuality. In Prance he finds social amenities 
after his own heart, discussion on intellectual and esthetic 
topics with commerce and industry playing a minor role, 
manners, deportment, charm, and scintillating conversa- 
tion — all, in fact, that he feels himself heir to. The sunny, 
neo-Greek paganism of Parisian life comes closest to his 
ideal of Heaven on earth. He is a welcome guest in the 
select circles usually presided over by some man or woman 
of distinction, membership in which he covets more than a 
notice in the Society Column. If a poet, he is listened to 
with attention, and if, like Ruben Dario, a great poet, he 
is showered with honors. If a painter, a sculptor, a musi- 
cian, or a writer, he encounters on every hand congenial 
spirits eager to share their views with him. The fact that 
he is a Latin American, a citizen of young, undeveloped 
countries, does not count against him. 

MISTAKEN LATIN AMERICAN CRITICISM DUE TO INSUFFICIENT 
KNOWLEDGE 

In the United States, he finds little of this, and most 
commonly nothing. All that he can see or hear is business 
or politics or community gossip. Since his term of com- 
parison is Paris, he concludes that we are Philistines. 

Of course, he is unjust in holding us up to the Parisian 
ideal. No city or country in the world will stand the 
comparison. But if he could go about freely among us, 
he would find in Greenwich Village, in some sections of 
New England, such as Boston and Cape Cod, in the artists' 
and writers' settlements of New Hampshire, Chicago, and 
California, and in many of our smaller cities and towns 
and in our university centers groups of men and women 
as sincerely devoted to the practice and the discussion of 
the more humane arts as he himself is, and as familiar with 
foreign lands and with world thought. 



350 As Latin Americans See Us 



DIFFERENCE IN THE GENIUS OF AMERICAN AND LATIN 
AMERICAN JOURNALISM 

It is to be feared that he receives too many of his impres- 
sions from the newspapers rather than from first-hand 
observation: and his views are consequently one-sided. 
With the exception of the New York Times, the Sun, the 
New York Evening Post, the Boston Transcript, the Spring- 
field Republican, the Kansas City Star, the Christian 
Science Monitor, and a few other papers, our news journals 
disappoint him. He is accustomed to newspapers which 
deal in a large way with international events, give much 
space to art and literature, almost invariably publish poetry 
in a conspicuous place, and encourage, instead of eliminat- 
ing, personal, literary style. 

Our newspapers, with their stress on the trivial, the 
gossipy, the local; with their ''featuring" of crime; with 
their policy of emphasizing the advertising on the page 
rather than the reading-matter; with their matter-of-fact 
language in which there is not the slightest note of esthetic 
pleasure; and with their glaring headlines, their verbose 
and often unintelligible "sport" pages, and their bizarre 
comic and "feature" supplements, prejudice him even 
when he is inclined to an indulgent criticism of our civili- 
zation. 

Surely the newspapers must be representative! They 
are the sources of the history of the future. But if the 
average American newspaper is representative, what a hum- 
drum thing is this American life which it represents ! How 
undistinguished, how deficient in originality, how uninspir- 
ing ! How few of our 2500 or more daily newspapers have 
"personality"! How curiously addicted, too, to minute 
details of criminality, in a country which prides itself on 
a strait-laced morality! Where everybody reads the 
newspapers, even to the budding young woman and the 
adolescent boy, no good augury can be divined in the boldly 
printed and voluminous descriptions of unsavory cases of 
murder, divorce, rape, and all manner of financial and 
social crookedness. 



As Latin Americans See Us 351 

The Latin American cannot, unfortunately, appreciate 
the genius of average American journalism. He is probably 
correct in his belief that too much space is devoted to 
lubricity and uninteresting rascality, and he is not far 
wrong in doubting the advantages of printing all the news 
because it is news. That our journalists are giving the 
public what it wants — if that is what they are trying to 
do — does not speak particularly well for the public: and 
to give the public only what it wants may be equivalent 
to the veriest twaddle. Newspapers should not only state 
facts, in his belief, but also aid in the formation of charac- 
ter and of intelligent public opinion. 

As an example of what can be done he points to La 
Prensa and La Nacion of Buenos Aires and to Jornal do 
Commercio of Rio de Janeiro, of which Miss Elliott says : 

It is a great paper in all senses of the word, is finely printed — ■ 
this great sheet, often with thirty-two and sometimes eighty big 
pages, eight columns wide, printed in a language requiring the 
"til," "eedilha," acute and circumflex accents, constantly employed, 
coming out day after day almost without any typographical errors. 
Its reviews of commercial affairs are made with authority; it is 
remarkable for having no editorials, anything that needs to be 
said editorially appearing in the "Varias Noticias"; months may 
pass without this column containing more than chronicles of official 
acts and movements, but when the Jornal is moved to speak its 
voice comes in no uncertain tone. Its denunciations and pro- 
nouncements are discussed like a Papal Edict in the Middle Ages, 

and of which Mr. Bland observes, 

He [Dr. Rodrigues, the proprietor and editor of Jornal] 
took The Times of Delane and Buckle as his model, and firmly 
refused to conform to twentieth-century ideals of commercial 
journalism; it was his boast, for example, that he never allowed 
advertisements to appear on the same page as reading-matter. 

Perhaps, after all, the Latin American's misconception 
of our newspapers is due to the fact that he does not grasp 
the essential truth that our newspapers are local, and not 
national, like his great dailies and some of the journals 
of Europe, and that, having left behind the period when 
bigotry and partisanship were furthered under the guise 
of the formation of public opinion, they have chosen the 



^5^ As Latin Americans See Us 

saner and safer course of presenting the bare facts, relying 
on the judgment of the public to use them in an intelligent 
manner. Moreover, he does not sufficiently keep in his 
mind's eye the tawdry, execrable sheets which pass for 
newspapers in so many of the smaller cities and towns of 
Latin America. 

Personal habits and business methods in the United 
States also come in for some adverse criticism on the part 
of the Latin American, It is not, however, to be assumed 
that the Latin American is hypercritical or unduly watch- 
ful of uncomplimentary details in American life. Usually 
he is a traveler of considerable experience and recognizes 
that variety in customs and manners is what chiefly makes 
foreign countries interesting. Our merits he acknowledges 
freely. Our democratic spirit, our liberality which leads 
us to sacrifice money and life in any project that has 
earned our enthusiasm, our general cleanliness in private 
morals, our steadfast belief in popular education, our 
principles of law and order, our fondness for sanitary 
surroundings, our practicality, our directness, our philan- 
thropy, and our Anglo-Saxon sense of fair play — often 
absent in our dealings with his country, he may think, but 
never suffering a total eclipse — he appreciates to the full 
and admires more than he is sometimes disposed to admit. 

SUSCEPTIBILITY OP LATIN AMERICANS TO ACTS OF COURTESY 

Such little attentions as the interchange of teachers and 
students, the erection of the monument to Bolivar, the pub- 
lie burial at Arlington of the Brazilian soldier, Viriato 
Claudio de Mello, who fought with the Seventeenth Regi- 
ment of the United States Field Artillery in the European 
War, the proposed construction of a half-million dollar 
memorial to Brazil on the occasion of the celebration of 
its first century of independence on September 7, 1922, 
he is profoundly sensitive of: and how easy is the way to 
his heart and his friendship by sincerely meant courtesies 
of this kind, to which we are given altogether too infre- 
quently ! 

Far rarer would be his criticism of our manners and 



As Latin Americans See Us S53 

mannerisms if we could cultivate him on the sentimental, 
as well as on the commercial, side. For his estimate of our 
ways and our qualities is undoubtedly influenced very 
strongly by the snapshot judgments of our writers and 
travelers who treat of his own people. 

CUSTOMS AND MANNERS DISTASTEFUL TO LATIN AMERICANS 
AND EUROPEANS 

Our personal manners strike him as they used to strike 
the European, in general, some fifty or sixty years ago. 

Many of our practices are distasteful to him in the 
extreme, but only because they offend his traditional notion 
of the fitness of things. That an American man can walk 
down the street in his shirt-sleeves, or that he can allow 
himself to appear in the company of a woman with his coat 
slung over his arm ; that a man, a boy, or even a girl may 
whistle in public ; that nearly everybody should be a slave 
to the gum-chewing habit and that respectable workingmen 
should chew tobacco; that informal dress should be per- 
mitted at the opera and at formal occasions on which every- 
thing ought to be de rigueur; that we can lower ourselves 
to sitting on stools in public eating-houses and hastily 
swallowing pie, ice-cream, and coft'ee — a horrible combina- 
tion, in his opinion; that girls should be seen unattended 
on the streets at all hours of the day and night; that we 
should fail to remove our hats at a passing funeral proces- 
sion ; that we should indulge in feats of noisy athleticism 
and raise our voices in roars of applause at baseball and 
football games; that a young man should take a girl out 
for a drive ; that a man should help in such menial domestic 
duties as the washing of dishes; that children should put 
themselves forward in company; that we should drink ice- 
water so incessantly, or at all; that we should eat stuffed 
turkey with cranberry sauce, artichokes cooked in cinnamon, 
and lettuce or tomatoes seasoned with sugar — highly 
reprehensible customs, according to Sefior Pinochet's fic- 
titious, but observant, Chilean — all these are practices 
which make a disagreeable impression on the educated 



354 As Latin Americans See Us 

Latin American or Latin European, solely because he is 
not used to them. 

These manners and mannerisms have all been berated 
before, especially by British visitors, but they have not 
prevented us from winning the respect of such men as 
Viscount Bryce and that most upright, aristocratic French 
admirer of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville. 
Even the ice-water habit has found converts among Euro- 
peans, as Mr. John Graham Brooks points out in As Others 
See Us: 

We have the new temper of which I speak in Mr. Muirhead's 
"Land of Contrasts," in which he begs to — 

"warn the British visitor to suspend his judgment until he has 
been some time in the country. I certainly was not prejudiced 
in favor of this chilly draught when I started for the United 
States, but I soon came to find it natural and even necessary, 
and as much so from the dry hot air of the stove-heated room 
in winter as from the natural ambition of the mercury in summer. 
On the whole, it may be philosophic to conclude that a universal 
habit in any country has some solid if cryptic reason for its 
existence, and to surmise that the drinking of ice-water is not 
so deadly in the States as it might be elsewhere." 

But what is to be done about it all ? Nothing, of course. 

For every one of these idiosyncrasies we, from our point 
of view, find an equivalent in Latin American personal 
habits. Visitors to our shores must take us for what we 
are, just as Americans traveling in Latin America must 
take national conventions , as they find them. The only- 
wish that can be uttered in either case is that the proper 
allowances be made when traveling and that customs dis- 
tasteful to foreigners or likely to be misunderstood by them 
be left at home. Our great failing as Americans is to 
animadvert upon the moral status of the Latin races: the 
Latin American's, to see "bluff" and ostentation in every 
American act. 

As an eminently successful commercial nation, we have 
hypnotized ourselves into the belief that our methods are 
the best methods and that they are applicable to all sections 
of the globe. The Latin American begs to differ with us 
on this point. To his way of thinking, our business methods 



As Latin Americans See Us 355 

are in many ways the worst that can be imagined. How 
we manage to extend our business dealings and to increase 
the volume of our trade, he cannot explain with any pre- 
cision: but he is sure that we have not created a steady 
market among his people. Perhaps the reason is to be 
sought principally in the fact that we have only just begun 
to be an exporting nation. 

The General Financial Manager of the American Express 
Company, who has been visiting the South American offices 
of his firm, comments as follows in the South American 
on an article in La Prensa of Buenos Aires 

La Prensa proceeds to quote from the interesting book of the 
Argentine ex-Minister to the United States, Dr. Martin Garcia 
Merou, on the foreign commerce of that country a passage in 
which he set down the opinions uttered by the U. S. Senator, the 
Hon. JuUus C. Burrows, on discussing the MeKinley tariff, accord- 
ing to whom the total value of the production of the United States 
in the year previous to that in which he spoke — including the 
produce from agriculture, manufacture, mining and forestry — 
amounted to 21,500 milhons of dollars. Of that enormous sum 
the United States consumed within its own borders 20,000 million 
dollars and only exported 1,500 million dollars' worth of goods 
to foreign markets. The speaker then asserted that great care 
could need to be exercised over making any alterations in that 
state of things, as it would be a fatal mistake to diminish in any 
degree the country's capacity to satisfy the inland demand just 
for the sake of the illusory and fleeting advantage of catering 
to some foreign market. 

No doubt the opinion expressed in this passage governed 
the ideas of many of our financial thinkers not long since 
and accounts for the defects in our business methods noted 
by Latin Americans. That opinion, however, is not valid 
to-day, for we have had ocular demonstration in our recent 
business depression of the importance of export to our 
national prosperity. Latin American criticism is, there- 
fore, especially valuable to us now and should be studied 
with attention. 

SERIOUSNESS OF OUR IGNORANCE OF LATIN AMERICA 

Our greatest drawback, declares the Latin American 
critic, lies in our abysmal ignorance of his country and his 



356 As Latin Americans See Us 

people. Proof of this may be had in simple questions on 
Latin America addressed to representative business-men, 
university students, and even coUege professors. While 
excusable, perhaps, in the latter two classes, such ignorance, 
which goes as far as the commission of egregious geograph- 
ical blunders, is fatal on the part of our merchants. Lack 
of knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese is another obstacle 
which must be overcome if we are to be able to do our 
business ourselves and not through interpreters or through 
foreign agents who are often likely, because of prejudice 
or because of friendship for a competing house or nation, 
to do us as much harm as good. Before we can hope to 
supply the different Latin American nations with the 
smaller manufactured articles which constitute so much 
of the trade of Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, and 
Japan, we must understand thoroughly the tastes of the 
people to whom we wish to sell them — a phase of commerce 
to which we have been notoriously indifferent. 

These and allied truths are so self-evident that they 
require little discussion. They have been hammered upon 
so unceasingly by our writers and lecturers that the Amer- 
ican public interested in Latin America should now know 
them by heart. That the Latin American is absolutely 
correct in his indictment of our ignorance is scarcely open 
to question. 

A DEFECT IN OUR EDUCATIONAL. SYSTEM 

If, as is apparent at present, Latin America means more 
to us commercially and politically than any other section 
of the world except Europe, we ought at least to arrange 
our common school education in such a way as to familiarize 
our growmg citizens with the countries with which their 
future is certain to be inextricably bound up. There can 
be no doubt that a salutary educational revolution would be 
accomplished by the inclusion of supplementary reading 
on Latin America or of Latin American geography and 
history in the upper grades of our elementary schools and 
in our high schools. 

But from an immediately practical standpoint, our 



As Latin Americans See Us 357 

failure to conform to eommereial conditions as they are 
in Latin America appears suicidal to Latin American 
observers, and predictions are freely made that we cannot 
possibly maintain our present ascendancy unless we 
materially change our ways. The Latin American merchant 
will soon cease to be dependent on us. Great Britain, 
Germany, and France will not be long in recuperating from 
the effects of the war. If, in the meantime, we do not back 
water on our policy of trying to force our customers to 
accept our business practice; if we do not yield them the 
courtesy and the deference to which they are accustomed; 
if we do not give up our habit of rushing in with business 
propositions before we have laid the customary social 
foundation, even in a transaction that requires only a day 
or two ; if we do not alter our credit system ; if we refuse 
to regard Latin American merchants in general as trust- 
worthy and solvent; if we insist on making light of the 
siesta and the regulation holidays because of our impatience 
to complete negotiations; if we continue to speak from a 
high elevation as superiors to inferiors; if we do not 
reciprocate so as to permit Latin American banks to estab- 
lish themselves in the United States on the same liberal 
terms that are granted to foreign banks in Latin America f 
if we erect tariff barriers injurious to the admission of 
Latin American products; if we do not improve our ' 
methods of shipping, packing, and routing; if we do not 
iill orders exactly as requested by the purchaser: if, in 
short, we do not conduct our business relations in accord- 
ance with the tacit rules of international trade, the standard 
of which is actually set by Europe, we are doomed to dis- 
appointment in the larger trans-Caribbean countries. 

The Latin American conception of American character 
and social and commercial customs should prove beneficial 
to us in several ways. As mere invidious appreciation of 
American peculiarities it may be no more significant than 
such studies have a habit of being: but as a confession of 
Latin American likes, dislikes, and traditional thinking and 
feeling it should possess unusual interest for us. Latin 
Americans single us out, rightly or wrongly, for critical 



358 As Latin Americans See Us 

comment among the many nations which have considerable 
dealings with them. We cannot afford to disregard a dis- 
tinction of this kind. Common sense dictates that we 
should devote some effort to removing some of the bad 
impressions created by us as individuals or as a nation. 

If, however, we can by some lucky combination of cir- 
cumstances win the sympathy of Latin Americans, as the 
British and the Germans have done, the criticism now 
directed against us — ^which is really European and not 
specifically Latin American — ^will vanish as rapidly as the 
British and French criticism once so popular and the stock- 
in-trade of travelers, writers, and humorists. For a little 
sentiment goes a long way with the Latin races. 




in 



Gr 



SOUTH AMERICA 



ENGLISH STATUTE MILES 



100 200 300 400 500 600 700 

KILOMETERS 

100 200 300 400 500 600 700.800 900 1000 



■rzrcjA B/ I B B E a\\k^ s e ^V|T;[H 



\ , oon«v^'Sff yA SBtl i«?W™w\cS3fed9r2v5'? ■stL ■'HA-'-' -f 



APPENDIX 



USEFUL INFORMATION 

Argentina 

Abea, 1,153,418 square miles. 
Population, 9,000,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$828,477,000 $976,596,000 $1,805,073,000 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$322,000,000 $180,000,000 $502,000,000 

Principal Exports: Meat and dairy products, wheat, com, 
linseed, quebracho, tannin, hides, and wool. 

Principal Imports: Textiles and allied products, manu- 
factured articles of iron and steel, railway supplies, agricultural 
implements, electric apparatus, glass and chinaware, together with 
earths, stones, etc., chemicals, building materials. 

Transportation Facilities: 22,500 miles of railways: 52,- 
800 miles of telegraph lines; steamship connections with all 
parts of the world, fifty lines having agencies in Buenos Aires 
alone; over 20 wireless telegraph stations. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold peso: value, $.9648. Or- 
dinary medium of exchange, paper peso, maintained at 44 per 
cent of the gold peso value: about 42.5 cents in U. S. money 
at normal exchange. 

Weights and Measuresi: The metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; Feb. 
27, 28; March 19; April 13, 14, 15; May 1, 25; June 15, 29; 
July 9; Aug. 15, 30; Oct, 12; Nov. 1, 11; Dec. 8, 25. 

Names of the holidays regularly observed, with dates for 1919, 
as examples: Jan. 1, New Year's Day; Jan. 6, Epiphany; 

359 



360 Appendix 

March 3, Monday, before Lent; March 4, Tuesday before Lent; 
Apr. 17, Holy Thursday; Apr. 18, Good Friday; Apr. 19, Holy 
Saturday; May 25, Independence Day; May 29, Ascension Day; 
June 19, Corpus Christi; June 29, St. Peter and St. Paul; July 9, 
Proclamation of National Independence; Aug. 15, Assumption; 
Aug. 30, Santa Rosa de Lima; Oct. 12, Discovery of America; 
Nov. 1, All Saints' Day; Nov. 11, St. Martin of Tours (Patron 
Saint of Buenos Aires) ; Dec. 8, Immaculate Conception; Dec. 25, 
Christmas Day. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Buenos Aires (capital) : Population, 1,692,327 : Important 
Newspapers, La Nacion, La Prensa, La Argentina, La Razon 
(evening). La Epoca (evening) : La Patria degli Italiani 
(Italian: (weeklies) Caras y Caretas, El Mundo Argentino, El 
Hogar, El Graflco, Plus Ultra, Review of the River Plate (Eng- 
lish) : Hotels, Plaza, Savoy, Majestic, Cecil, Paris. 

Rosario: Population, 250,000: Important Newspaper, La 
Capital: Hotels, Savoy, Italia, Central, Royal, Britannia. 

Cordoba: Population, 135,000: Important Newspaper, Los 
Prineipios: Hotels, Plaza, San Martin, Victoria, Roma. 

La Plata: Population, 130,000: Important Newspaper, El 
Dia: Hotels, Sportsman, El Argentino, Mosquera, Comercio. 

Tucuman: Population, 100,000: Important Newspaper, El 
Orden: Hotels, Savoy, Frascati, Artigas. 

Bahia Blanca: Population, 80,000: Important Newspaper, 
Bahia Blanca, Nueva Provincia: Hotels, Sud Americano, Ar- 
gentino, Internacional. 

Bolivia 

Area, 514,595 square miles. 
Population, 2,820,119. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$23,000,000 $54,000,000 $77,000,000 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$9,000,000 $26,000,000 $35,000,000 

Principal Exports: Tin ore, rubber, wolfram, silver, copper 
ore, bismuth, antimony, lead ore, wool, coca, hides. 
Principal Imports: Textiles (cotton and wool), flour, coal, 



Appendix 361 

sugar, live animals, machinery, iron and steel products, arms and 
ammunition. 

Transportation Facilities: 1,100 miles of railways; about 
5,000 miles of telegraph lines; several wireless telegraph stations. 
Bolivia has no coast line, but is connected with the Pacific coast 
by 3 railway lines. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold boliviano: value, about $.39 
at normal exchange (121/2 bolivianos are equal to 1 pound). 
Medium of exchange : gold coin, subsidiary silver, and bank notes 
on a parity with gold. 

Weights and Measures: the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Feb. 27, 28; 
March 1; April 13, 14, 15; June 15; Aug. 6; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 2; 
Dec. 8, 25. August 6 is Independence Day, and Nov. 2 is All 
Souls' Day. The other holidays correspond to those of Argentina, 
and their names may be found by consulting the list given for 
Argentina. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

La Paz (seat of government): Population, 107,000: Im- 
portant Newspapers, El Diario, El Norte, El Tiempo, La Ver- 
dad. La Razon, El Figaro: Hotels, Gran Hotel, Hotel Paris. 

Cochabamba: Population, 34,000: Important Newspapers, 
El Ferrocarril, El Republicano, El Heraldo: Hotels, Sucre, 
Americano, Union. 

Oruro: Population, 32,000: Important Newspapers, La 
Naeion, La Prensa, El Industrial: Hotels, Quintanal, Union, 
Terminus, Comercio. 

Potosi: Population, 30,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Tiempo, La Patria, La Democracia : Hotels, Internacional, Cen- 
tral, Pans. 

Sucre (legally the capital): Population, 29,500: Important 
Newspapers, La Prensa, La Manana, La Industria, La. Capital: 
Hotels, Espaiia, Hispano-Americano, Colon. 

Brazil 
Area, 3,276,358 square miles. 
Population, 30,553,509. 
Language, Portuguese. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$459,939,186 $385,530,392 $845,469,578 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$193,652,140 $159,541,580 $353,193,720 



362 Appendix 

Principal Exports : Coffee, cereals, rubber, hides, sugar, man- 
ganese ore, cacao, tobacco, herva mate (Paraguay tea), frozen 
and chilled meats, preserved meats. 

Principal Imports: Food products (principally wheat and 
wheat flour, codfish, fruits and nuts, wines and liquors), chemicals 
and drugs, iron and steel manufactures (the chief items being 
fence wire, tin plate in sheets, corrugated iron, cutlery, structural 
iron, steel rails, railway axles and wheels), cotton manufactures 
(ready made clothing, hosiery, and piece goods), leather manu- 
factures (boots and shoes, machine belting, trunks and bags), 
printing paper. 

Transportatign Facilities: In the north, northwest, and 
southwest, the great river system furnishes the main transporta- 
tion arteries; 18,500 miles of railways; 25,000 miles of Govern- 
ment owned telegraph lines and a large number of privately 
owned lines; extensive coast and river-going steamship service; 
steamship lines to all parts of the world, about fifty trans-atlantie 
lines being registered at one or more of the Atlantic ports; an 
extensive system of wireless telegraph stations, the one at Para 
having a range of 4,000 miles and being able to communicate 
with the United States. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold milreis: value about $.546. 
Ordinary medium of exchange, paper milreis: value, about $.324 
at normal exchange. 

Weights and Measures: the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; Feb. 2, 24, 
27, 28; Apr. 13, 14, 15, 17, 21; May 3, 13, 25; June 15, 24, 29; 
July 14; Aug. 15; Sept. 7, 8; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 2, 15, 28; Dec. 
8,25. 

The national holidays for all Brazil are: Jan. 1, New Year's 
Day; Feb. 24, Promulgation of Constitution; Apr. 21, Tiradentes 
Day; May 3, Discovery of Brazil; May 13, Abolition of Slavery; 
July 4, Anniversary of American Independence ; July 14, Liberty 
Day; Sept. 7, Independence Day; Oct. 12, Discovery of America; 
Nov. 2, Memorial Day; Nov. 15, Proclamation of the Republic; 
Nov. 19, Flag Day. 

The other holidays are Church holidays, which, though not 
legal holidays, are generally observed. They correspond in most 
cases to the holidays named for Argentina, which see. 

In most of the States, there are local holidays commemorating 
notable events in State or municipal history. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Rio de Janeiro (capital): Population, 1,150,000: Important 
Newspapers, Jornal do Commereio, Correio da Manha, O 
Jomal do Brazil, Paiz, Impareial, A Razao, A Rua, A Noite: 
(weeklies) Careta, Fon Fon, Malho, Tieo Tico: (monthly) 
Eu Sei Tudo : Hotels, Avenida, Central, Estranjeiros, Palaeio. 



Appendix 363 

Sao Paulo: Population, 565,000: Important Newspapers, 
Cqrreio Paulistano, Diario Popular, Estado de Sao Paulo, 
O Jornal do Commereio : Fanfulla (Italian) : Hotels, Grande, 
Majestic, Oeste. 

Bahia: Population, 350,000: Important Newspapers, Im- 
pareial, A Tarde, Jornal de Noticias: Hotels, Paris, 
Meridional, Sul Americano, Pensao Harbord. 

Para (or Belem) : Population, 280,000: Important News- 
papers, A Folha do Norte, Estado do Para, O Imparcial: 
Hotels, Paz, America, Universal, Commereio, Madrid. 

Recife (or Pernambuco) : Population, 250,000 : Important 
Newspapers, Diario do Pernambuco, Jornal do Recife, A 
Provineia, Intransigente, Jornal do Commereio: Hotels, 
Hotel do Parque, Hotel do Recife, Sul Americano, Hotel de 
France, Pension von Landy. 

Santos: Population, about 80,000: Important Newspapers, A 
Nota, Diario de Santos, A Tribuna: Hotels, Sportsman, 
Bristol, Washington, America. 

Chile 
Area, 289,796 square miles. 
Population, 3,754,723 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports' Exports Total 

$166,103,810 $288,905,301 $455,009,111 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$51,198,793 $126,174,920 $177,373,713 

Principal Exports: Nitrate of soda, copper, wheat, iodine, 
silver, borate of lime, beans, wool, frozen meats, barley. 

Principal Imports: Textiles, iron and steel manufactures, oils, 
coal, machinery, hardware, vehicles, paper and manufactures. 

Transportation Facilities: over 5,000 miles of railways; 
22,500 miles of telegraph lines ; steamship lines from the principal 
ports to all parts of the world ; 8 wireless telegraph stations. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold peso: value, about $.365. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, paper peso : equivalent to about 
$.2433 at normal exchange, but of fluctuating value. 

Weights and Measures: the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. Ij Apr. 14, 15; 
May 21, 25; June 15, 29; Aug. 15; Sept. 18, 19; Nov. 1; Dec. 
8, 25. 



364 Appendix 

May 21 is Army and Navy Day, and Sept. 18 and 19 are 
the National Independence Days. The other holidays correspond 
for the most part to those of Argentina, which see. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Santiago (capital) : Population, 506,594: Important News- 
papers, El Mercurio, Las Ultimas Noticias, La Nacion, El Diario 
Ilustrado, La Union : Ziz-Zag, Sucesos (illustrated weeklies) : 
La Familia (monthly) : Hotels, Grand, Oddo, Savoy. 

Valparaiso: Population, 183,001: Important Newspapers, 
El Mercurio, La Union, El Industrial: Los Sucesos (illustrated 
weekly) : South Pacific Mail (English weekly) : Hotels, Royal, 
Grand, Colon, Valparaiso, Franeia, Palace. 

Concepcion: Population, 72,785: Important Newspapers, 
El Sur, La Union, El Notieiero de la Tarde: Hotels, Franco, 
Wachter, Bolsa, Cosmopolita. 

Antofagasta: Population, 64,584: Important Newspapers, 
El Mercurio, El Industrial, El Norte, La Nacion: Hotels, 
Hotel de France et d'Angleterre, Londres, Oriental, Belmont. 

Iquique: Population, 46,941: Important Newspapers, El 
Tarapaca, El Nacional, La Patria: Hotels, Phoenix, Sud 
America, Oriental. 

Punta Arenas: Population, 34,000 : Important Newspapers, 
El Magallanes, La Union, El Comercio: The Magellan Times 
(English weekly). 

Colombia 
Area, 476,916 square miles. 
Population, 6,300,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$94,225,273 $70,371,746 $164,597,019 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$65,000,000 $60,000,000 $125,000,000 

Principal Exports: Coffee, platinum, gold, emeralds, hides, 
bananas, tagua (ivory nuts), Panama hats, rubber, tobacco. 

Principal Imports: Textiles, foodstuffs and condiments, 
metals, railway supplies, pharmaceutical products, paper, school 
and office supplies, agricultural and mining implements, ma- 
chinery. 

Transportation Facilities: 777 miles of railways; most of 



Appendix 365 

the commerce in the interior is carried on by the rivers with 
the railway as auxiliary; steamship connections with all parts 
of the world; over 12,000 miles of government telegraph lines; 
large coastwise and river trade; 3 wireless telegraph stations, 
and an international station at Bogota under contract. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold peso: value, $.9733. Much 
United States currency is in circulation. 

Weights and Measures: the metric system is obligatory- 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; Apr. 13, 14, 
15; May 1, 25; June 28, 29, 30; July 24; Aug. 6, 7; Oct. 12; 
Nov. 1, 11; Dec. 8, 25, 29, 30, 31. 

July 24, is the Birthday of Bolivar (but not universally 
observed) ; Aug. 6, Founding of Bogota (at Bogota only) ; Aug. 7, 
Anniversary of the Battle of Boyaca. The other holidays cor- 
respond in general to those of Argentina, which see. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Bogota (capital): Population, 143,994: Important News- 
papers, El Espectador, El Nuevo Tiempo, El Diario Ofieial, El 
Tiempo, El Graflco, Cromos (weeklies) : Hotels, Metropolitano, 
Atlantico, Continental, Iberico. 

Medellin: Population, 80,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Correo Liberal, El Espectador: Antioquia (weekly); Colombia 
(weekly) : Hotels, Europa, Wilson, America, Victoria. 

Barranctuilla: Population, 65,000: Important Newspapers, 
El Dia, El Liberal, La Nacion: Hotels, Suiza, Medellin, San 
Carlos. 

Cartagena: Population, 51,382: Important Newspapers, La 
:6poca. El Porvenir, El Diario de la Costa: Principal Hotel, 
Hotel Cartagena. 

Bucaramanga: Population, about 30,000: Important News- 
papers, El Liberal, El Eco de Santander: Principal Hotel, 
Hotel Colon. 

Oali: Population, 28,000: Important Newspaper, Relator. 

Costa Rica 
Area, 23,000 square miles. 
Population, 463,727. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$22,369,997 $14,933,551 $37,303,548 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$11,657,757 $10,615,020 $22,272,777 



366 Appendix 

Principal Exports: Bananas, coffee, gold and silver, woods 
hides and skins, rubber, cacao. 

Principal Imports: Flour, cotton fabrics, rice, electrical ma- 
terials, railway material, pharmaceutical products, lard, coal. 

Transportation Facilities: 430 miles of railways; steamship 
lines connecting with Limon for the United States and Europe 
and on the Pacific side at Puntarenas for the United States, 
Panama, and the south; over 1,500 miles of telegraph lines j 
wireless telegraph stations at Limon and Colorado. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold colon: value about $.465. 

United States currency passes at par. 

Weights and Measures ; the metric system has been established 
by law, but the following weights and measures are still used 
at times : libra = 1.043 pounds : manzana = IVe acres : Centura =■ 
4.2631 gallons : fanega = 11 bushels. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) : Jan. 1; March 19; Apr. 
11, 13, 14, 15; May 1; June 15, 29; July 14, 24; Aug. 15; 
Sept. 15; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 11; Dec. 8, 25, 29, 30, 31. 

March 19 is San Jose (St. Joseph) Day; Apr. 11, Battle of 
Rivas; May 1, Surrender of General Walker; July 14, Fall of 
the Bastille; July 24, Birthday of Bolivar; Sept. 15, Anniversary 
of Independence; Dee, 29, 30, 31, Bank Holidays, The other 
holidays correspond to those of Argentina, which see. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

San Jose (capital): Population, 50,765: Important Nevs^s- 
PAPERS, La Informacion, La Prensa, El Diario de Costa Rica, 
La Tribuna, El Imparcial: Principal Hotel, Washington. 

Limon: Population, 13,178: Important Nevs^spapers, El 
Tiempo : El Pais (weekly) : Principal Hotel, Lodge. 

Cuba 

Area, 44,164 square miles. 
Population, 2,900,000. 
Language, Spanish, 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$524,471,279 $782,551,749 $1,307,023,028 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$321,627,449 $642,148,034 $963,775,483 

Principal Exports: Sugar, tobacco, minerals (iron, gold, cop- 
per, and asphalt), timber, fruits, hides and skins. 



Appendix 367 

Principal Imports : Foodstuffs, textiles, machinery, metals and 
manufactures, chemicals and drugs, animal products, wood and 
manufactures. 

Transportation Facilities : over 2,400 miles of railways, not 
including 800 miles of private lines on the plantations; steamship 
lines to the United States and the principal countries of Europe; 
652 post and telegraph offices; telephone service in 114 cities 
and towns. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold peso: value $1.00. Money of 
the United States is legal tender. 

Weights and Meastires: the metric is in general use. Other 
weights and measures commonly used are: arroba (dry) =25.366 
pounds; arroba (liquid) =4.263 gallons; libra = 1.0161 pounds; 
/ane^ra = 1.599 bushels ; a?ara.= 33.384 inches. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) : Jan. 1; Feb. 24; May 20; 
Oct. 10; Dec. 7, 25. 

Feb. 24 commemorates the Revolution of Baire; May 20, Inde- 
pendence Day; Oct. 10, Revolution of Yara; Dec. 7, Death of 
Maceo. 

Due days precede Sunday and legal holidays. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Havana (Habana), the capital: Population, 400,000: Im- 
portant Newspapers, La Prensa, Diario de la Marina, Cuba, 
El Mundo, El Heraldo de Cuba, La Discusion, La Lucha, La 
Noche: The Havana Post, The Havana Telegram ^English) : 
(weeklies) Politiea Comica, Bohemia, Confetti, El Figaro: 
(monthlies) Social, Carteles, Cuba Ilustrada, Times of Cuba 
(English) : Hotels, Sevilla, Plaza, Inglaterra, Florida, Pasaje, 
Miramar, Almendares". 

Santiago: Population, 46,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Combate, El Cubano Libre, La Prensa, El Diario de Cuba, La 
Independencia, El Liberal, El Nacional, El Derecho, La Re- 
publica: Principal Hotel, Casa Grand. 

Matanzas: Population, 37,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Correo de Mantanzas, El Dia, El Imparcial, El Latigo, El Repub- 
licano Conservador: Principal Hotel, Hotel Paris. 

Cienfuegos: Population, 32,000 : Important Newspapers, El 
Comercio, La Correspondencia, El Republicano: Principal 
Hotel, Gran Union 

Camagiiey: Population, 31,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Popular, El Nacional, El Imparcial, El Camagiieyano: Hotels, 
Hotel Camagiiey, Hotel Plaza. 

Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) 
Area, 19,325 square miles. 
Population, 800,000. 
Language, Spanish. 



368 Appendix 

Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$46,525,876 $58,731,241 $105,257,117 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$38,848,791 $51,113,990 $89,962,781 

Principal Exports : Sugar, cacao, tobacco, honey, coffee, bees- 
wax, molasses, goatskins, hides, cotton, woods. 

Principal Imports : Cotton manufactures, rice, machinery and 
apparatus, iron and steel, foodstuffs (excepting rice and wheat 
flour), vegetable fibers and manufactures, hides and skins and 
manufactures, mineral oils, wheat flour. 

Transportation Facilities : 375 miles of railways ; steamship 
lines to the principal ports of the United States and Europe; 
regular service to Porto Rico and Cuba; over 350 miles of 
telegraph; 1,175 miles of telephone lines; wireless telegraph sta- 
tions at Santo Domingo, La Romana, and San Pedro de Maeoris. 

Currency : Monetary unit, gold dollar : valuej $1.00. The peso 
is one-fifth of the gold dollar. United States money circulates 
freely at its face value. 

Weights and Measures: the metric system prevails. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) ; Jan. 1, 6, 21; Feb. 27; 
Apr. 13, 14, 15; June 15, 29; July 6 or 7; Aug. 16; Sept. 24; 
Oct. 12; Dee. 25. 

Feb. 27 commemorates the Founding of the Republic; July 
6 or 7, Memorial Day; Aug. 16, War for Independence. The 
other holidays are those common to Latin America. See under 
"Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Santo Domingo (capital) : Population, 31,540 : Important 
Newspapers, Las Noticias, El Listin Diario: El Renacimiento, 
Pica Pica, Letras, La ifipoca (weeklies) : Principal Hotel, 
Francis. 

Santiago: Population, 66,891: Important Newspapers, El 
Diario, La Informacion : Hotels, Garibaldi, Frances, Santiago. 

La Vega: Population, 59,324: Important Newspapers, E1^ 
Dia, El Progreso : Hotels, Frances, Union, Mocano. 

Ecuador 

Area, 116,000 square miles'. 
Population, 2,000,000 (estimated). 
Language, Spanish. 



Appendix 369 

Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$21,035,974 $24,181,129 $45,217,103 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$13,500,000 $15,250,000 $28,750,000* 

Principal Exports: Cacao, ivory nuts, Panama hats, rubber, 
coffee, hides', gold ore, and gold in bars and dust. 

PRiNCiPAii Imports: Textiles of cotton and wool, foodstuffs, 
hardware, ready-made clothing, machinery, drugs and medicines. 

Transportation Facilities : 400 miles of railway lines ; steam- 
ship lines to the United States and Europe via the Panama Canal : 
5,384 miles of telegraph lines; telephone service in the larger 
cities; 4 wireless telegraph stations at Quito, Guayaquil, on the 
coast north of Guayaquil, and on the Galapagos Islands; 20 pas- 
senger steamers ply on the Guayas River, and between Guayaquil 
and the coast towns; the Amazon River, called in Ecuador the 
Maranon, is navigable practically over its whole length, and 
consequently the eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes may be 
reached by way of Brazil and the Amazon. 

Currency: Monetary unit, the gold sucre: value, about $.487. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Apr. 13, 14; 
May 24; Aug. 10; Sept. 18; Oct. 9, 12; Dec. 25. 

May 24 is a National Holiday (Battle of Pichincha) ; Aug. 10, 
National Holiday (Independence of Quito) ; Sept. 18, National 
Holiday (Separation from Chile) ; Oct. 9, National Holiday 
(Independence of Guayaquil). The other holidays are those 
common to Latin America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Quito (capital) : Population, 90,000 : Important News- 
papers, El Comercio, El Dia, El Ecuatoriano: Juan Verdades 
(weekly) : Hotels, Gran Hotel Continental, Royal Hotel, Hotel 
Ecuador, Hotel Metropolitano. 

Gruayaciuil: Population, 100,000: Important Newspapers, 
El Diario Uustrado, El Ecuatoriano, El Grito del Pueblo, El 
Guante, El Telegrafo : El Comercio Ecuatoriano (monthly) : El 
Guia Comercial (weekly) : Hotels, Gran Hotel Paris, Victoria, 
Hotel Guayaquil, Wellington House. 

Guatemala 
Area, 48,290 square miles. 
Population, 2,119,165. 
Language, Spanish, 



870 Appendix 

Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$18,344,463 $18,102,906 $36,447,369 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$11,740,456 $14,500,000 $26,240,456 

Principal Exports : Coffee, bananas, sugar, chicle, woods, 
cattle hides, rubber, skins. 

Principal Imports: Cotton textiles and manufactures, iron 
and steel manufactures, food products, wheat flour, wines and 
liquors, sUk textiles and manufactures, wood textiles and manu- 
factures, railway material, agricultural and industrial machinery. 

Transportation Facilities : 600 miles of railways ; steamship 
connections on the Atlantic side with the United States and 
Europe, and on the Pacific with the United States, other parts 
of Central America, and Panama; 4,351 miles of telegraph lines; 
533 miles of telephone lines. 

Currency: Monetary unit, silver peso, of fluctuating value, 
according to the rise and fall in the value of silver : recent value, 
between $.36 and $.421. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, paper peso, inconvertible and 
fluctuating, or United States gold and currency: in 1918 the 
exchange rate was about 38 paper pesos to $1.00. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; March 19; 
Apr. 13, 14, 15; May 25; June 15, 29; July 4; Aug. 15; Sept. 15; 
Oct. 12; Nov. 1; Dec. 8, 25. 

July 4 is celebrated in honor of the Anniversary of American 
Independence; Sept. 15, Independence Day. The other holidays 
correspond in general to those common in the rest of Latin 
America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Guatemala City (capital): Population, 125,000: Important 
Newspapers, El Diario de Centro-America, La Tribuna, La Re- 
publica. El Nacional, La Actualidad : El Guatemalteco (weekly) : 
Hotels, Continental, Gran, Imperial, Central. 

Quezaltenango : Population, 35,000 : Important Newspapers, 
El Bien Publico, El Comercio, El Pais: Hotels, Paris, Union, 
Centro-Americano. 

Haiti 

Area, 10,200 square miles. 

Population, 2,000,000. 

Language, French. 



Appendix 371 

Foreign Commerce (1920) ; 

Imports Exports Total 

$27,398,411 $18,990,032 $46,388,443 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total * 

$22,773,762 $9,903,881 $32,677,643 

Principal Exports: Coffee, logwood, hides and skins, cacao, 
lignum-vitae, cotton, orange peel, guaiac wood. 

Principal Imports : Cotton textiles, flour, lard, hardware, sew- 
ing machines, railway material. 

Transportation Facilities: 150 miles of railways; principal 
means of transportation from one part of the Republic to the 
other is by water ; 124 miles of telegraph lines. 

Currency : Monetary unit, the gold gourde; value, about $.965. 
This is a theoretical coin, for no gold coins have been minted. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, the paper gourde, which fluc- 
tuates, and has of recent years been worth about one-sixth of 
its face value. 

United States currency also circulates. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Feb. 28; Apr. 
13, 14; May 1, 18, 25; June 15; Aug. 15; Nov. 1, 2; Dec. 25. 

Jan. 1 is New Year's Day and Independence Day; May 1, 
Agriculture Day (Labor Day) ; Nov. 2, All Souls' Day. The 
other holidays are those common to Latin America. See under 
"Argentina." 

Principal City (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Port au Prince (capital): Population, 101,133: Important 
Newspapers, Le Matin, Le Courrier du Soir, Le Nouvelliste: 
Hotels, American, Bellevue, France, Montague. 

Honduras 
Area, 46,250 square miles. 
Population, 650,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$12,860,762 $6,944,725 $19,805,487 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$11,246,758 $6,665,675 $17,912,433 



372 Appendix 

Principal Exports t Bananas, gold and silver cyanides, coco- 
nuts, cattle, hides, coffee, rubber, mahogany. 

Principal Imports: Cotton textiles, foodstuffs, pharmaceutical 
products, boots and shoes, machinery and implements, iron and 
steel manufactures. 

Transportation Facilities : 375 miles of railways ; steamship 
service on the Atlantic coast to the United States and the prin- 
cipal European countries, and on the Pacific coast to the United 
States, other Central American ports, and South America; 4,519 
miles of telegraph lines; over 550 miles of telephone lines. 

Cureenct: Monetary unit, silver peso, which fluctuates with 
the rise and fall of silver. In recent years it has been worth 
something more than $.40. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, paper bank-notes, fluctuating 
in value between $.35 and $.40. United States currency circulates 
freely. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 19; Apr. 13, 
14, 15; July 14; Sept. 15; Oct. 12; Dec. 25. 

July 14 commemorates the Fall of the Bastille; Sept. 15, In- 
dependence Day. The other holidays are those common to Latin 
America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal City (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Tegucigalpa (capital) : Population, 40,000: Important News- 
papers, El Nuevo Tiempo, El Cronista, La Patria, El Progreso: 
El Renacimiento (weekly) : Hotels, Agurcia, Jockey Club, New 
York, Progreso. 

Mexico 

Area, 767,168 square miles. 
Population, 17,000,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$178,396,392 $213,000,000 $391,396,392 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$133,435,163 $195,000,000 $328,435,163 

Principal Exports: Mineral, — oil, silver, copper, lead, an- 
timony, zinc, and gold: vegetable, — henequen, coffee, rubber 
(including guayule), chicle, frijoles, chick peas (garbanzos), 
ixtle, cabinet woods, zaeeton root, tobacco, vanilla, cottonseed, and 
^ugar: animal, — cattle, hides, skins, and tallow. 



Appendix , 37S 

Principal Imports: Machinery, tools, hardware, automobiles, 
ears, textiles and clothing, cotton, lumber, coal, vegetable oils, 
coke, liquors, grains, drugs, and furniture. 

Transportation Facilities: 16,000 miles of railways; steam- 
ship lines to all parts of the world; 51,543 miles of telegraph; 
telephone service in the larger cities; 18 wireless telegraph sta- 
tions; parcel post and postal money order service between the 
United States and Mexico. 

Currency : Theoretical monetary unit, gold peso : value, about 
$.998. Ordinary medium of exchange, silver peso: value, $.4985* 
Paper currency issued by the various governments fluctuates 
violently. 

United States currency circulates to a large extent. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Other weights and measures are : libra = 1.01465 pounds ; 
vara =^33 inches; barril= 20.0787 gallons; car^a = 300 pounds; 
fanega = 1.54728 bushels; frasco = 2.5 quarts. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; Feb. 5; 
March 19; Apr. 13, 14; May 5, 25; June 15, 29; Aug. 15; 
Sept. 16; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 2; Dee. 8, 12, 25. 

Feb. 5 is the Anniversary of the Constitution; March 19, the 
day of San Jose (St. Joseph) ; May 5, Triumph of 1862; Sept. 16, 
Anniversary of Independence; Dec. 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe. 
There are also many local holidays observed in certain States 
or cities. 

Due days precede Sunday or legal holidays. 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Mexico City (capital): Population, 800,000: Important 
Newspapers, El Demoerata, El Universal, Excelsior, El Diario 
Comercial, El Liberal, La Vanguardia, El Mundo, El Tiempo, 
El Heraldo de Mexico, Las Noticias, El Pueblo: El Mercurio, 
La Revista de Revistas, El Boletin de Industrias, El Universal 
Uustrado (weeklies) : The Weekly News Bulletin (English) : 
Hotels, Iturbide, Isabel, Lascurain, St. Frances, Alameda, Regis, 
Porter. 

Guadalajara: Population, 130,000: : Important News- 
papers, El Informador, La Prensa, La Restauracion, La :fipoca. 
El Combate, El Derecho: Hotels, Fenix, Frances, Roma, Garcia, 
Cosmpolita. 

Puebla: Population, 125,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Monitor, El Sol, La Cronica, Gil Bias, La Prensa, El Diario, 
El Progreso: Hotels, Espaiiol, American, Barcelona, Pasaje, 
Francia, Ingles. 

Monterey: Population, 85,000: Important Newspapers, La 
Verdad, El Liberal, La Tribuna, El Diario, El Noticiero, El 
Porvenir, El Progreso, La Nueva Patria : Hotels, Iturbide, In- 
dependencia, Continental, Aurora, Gulf, Monterey, Windsor. 



374 Appendix 

San Luis Potosi: Population, 85,000 : Important Newspapers, 
La Accion, El Picudo, La Razon, La Juventud (weekly) : 
Hotels, Progreso, Comercio, Internaeional, Jardin. 

Vera Cruz: Population, about 50,000: Important News- 
papers, El Dictamen, La Opinion, El Heraldo, El Combate, El 
Popular: Hotels, Universal, Buena Vista, Mexico, Diligencia, 
Colon. 

Chihuahua: Population, about 40,000: Important News- 
papers, El Correo del Norte, El Diario del Norte, El Mensajero, 
El Independiente, El Heraldo: Hotelsi, Franeia, Vidal, Colon, 
Palaeio. 

Nicaragua 
Area, 49,200 square miles. 
Population, 600,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$13,864,389 $10,787,345 $24,651,734 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$11,247,589 $9,294,809 $20,542,398 

Principal Exports: Coffee, rubber, gold and silver, hides, 
bamanas^ woods, cacao, sugar. 

Principal Imports: Textiles, flour, machinery, kerosene, 
leather, boots and shoes, mining materials, rice. 

Transportation Facilities: 200 miles of railways; steamship 
lines connecting with the United States, Europe, the rest of 
Central America, and South America; 3,637 miles of telegraph 
lines ; about 1,000 miles of telephone lines ; a considerable amoulit 
of river steamship service on the San Juan and the Coco or 
Segovia, and on Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua; a wireless 
telegraph station at Blueflelds, and 5 others contracted. 

Currency: Monetary unit, the gold cordoha: value, $1.00. 

Paper currency, issued by the National Bank; circulates at a 
heavy discount. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) : Jan. 1; March 1; April 
13, 14, 15; July 4; Sept. 14, 15; Oct. 12; Nov. 30; Dee. 25. 

July 4 is celebrated as the Anniversary of American Inde- 
pendence; Sept. 15, as the Anniversary of the Independence of 
Central America. The other holidays are those common to Latin 
America. See under "Argentina." 



m 



mils g Ipplfs S lEliiis =„ 



p .». s « 




Appendix 375 

Principal Citiks (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Managua (capital): Population, 60,342: Important News- 
papers, La Gaceta, El Heraldo, El Comercio, La Tarde, El Diario 
de Nicaragua, La Republiea, La Tribuna: Hotels, Gran, Italia, 
America, Estrella, Lupone. 

Leon: Population, 47,234: Important Newspapers, El Cen- 
tre- Americano, El Independiente, El Eco Nacional: Hotels, 
Metropolitan, Lupone, Roma. 

Granada: Population, 21,925: Important Newspapers, El 
Diario Nicaragiiense, El Correo: Hotels, Colon, Ascarate, Los 
Leones. 

Panama 
Area, 33,667 square miles. 
Population, 401,428. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$17,161,168 $3,552,271 $20,713,439 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$12,995,409 $3,210,615 $16,206,024 

Principal Exports: Bananas, coconuts, hides and skins, 
balata and rubber, tagua (ivory nuts), cacao, mother-of-pearl, 
tortoise shell, nispero, (medlar gum). 

Principal Imports: Wheat flour, iron and steel, cotton tex- 
tiles, mineral oils, rice, edible animal products, chemicals and 
drugs, boots and shoes, rubber manufactures, ready-made clothing. 

Transportation Facilities: 250 miles of railways; most of 
the railway mileage is closely associated with transportation to 
the Panama Canal; 37 telegraph offices; telephone system from 
Colon to Santa Isabel, along the Atlantic coast; cable service 
from Panama to North American and South American ports, and 
from Colon to the United States and Europe; several wireless 
telegraph stations. 

Currency: Monetary unit (theoretical), the gold balboa: 
value, $1.00. No gold coins have as yet been issued. 

The silver half-halhoa, or peso, is in common use. United 
States currency circulates freely at its nominal value. 

Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Feb. 22, 28; 
Apr. 14; May 30; June 30; July 4, 14; Sept. 4; Oct. 12; Nov. 3, 
11, 28, 30; Dec. 25. 



376 Appendix 

May 30 is Memorial Day; July 4, American Independence 
Day; Sept. 4, Labor Day; Nov. 3, Separation from Colombia; 
Nov. 30, Thanksgiving Day. The other holidays are those common 
to Latin America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Panama (capital): Population, 65,000: Important News- 
papers, El Diario de Panama, The Star and Herald (in English 
and Spanish) : El Conservator (weekly) : Hotels, Tivoli (at 
Aneon), International, Metropole, Central, Continental, Ameri- 
can, France, Europa. 

Colon: Population, 25,000: Principal Newspaper, La Es- 
trella de Colon: Hotels, Washington, Aspinwall, Imperial, Cos- 
mopolitan, Park. 

David: Population, 13,500: Principal Newspaper, El 
Noticiero: Principal Hotel, Santiago Lombardi. 

Paraguay 

Area, 196,000 square miles. 
Population, 1,000,000 (estimated). 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$12,724,949 $14,510,400 $27,235,349 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$3,035,669 $1,351,453 $4,387,122 

Principal Exports: Oranges, yerha mate (Paraguay tea), 
timber, hides, tobacco, dried beef, quebracho wood, lace. 

Principal Imports: Textiles, foodstuffs, hardware, fancy 
goods, wines and spirits, pharmaceutical products, ready-made 
clothing, hats. 

Transportation Facilities: 232 miles of railways: most of 
the transportation is carried on by the admirable river system 
of the Paraguay and the Parana; 2,000 miles of telegxaph lines. 

Currency: Monetary unit, gold peso: value, about $.965, the 
same as that of the Argentine gold peso. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, the paper peso, highly depre- 
ciated and worth only a small fraction of its face value. 

Argentine paper money circulates extensively in Paraguay. 

Weights! and Measures : the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Feb. 3; Apr. 
13, 14; May 14, 15; Aug. 15; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 25; Dec. 8, 25. 



Appendix 377 

Feb. 3 is San Bias Day; May 14 and 15, Independence Days; 
Nov. 25, Adoption of the Constitution. The other holidays are 
those common to Latin America. See under "Argentina," 

Principaij Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix J : 

Asuncion (capital): Population, 90,000: Important News- 
papers, El Diario, La Tribuna, El Liberal, El Nacional, La 
Mariana: Hotels, Cosmos, Hispano- Americano, Italia, Roma, 
Gran Hotel del Paraguay. 

Villarrica: Population, 40,000: Hotels, Central, Espanol, 
Eranco-Suizo. 

Peru 

Area, 533,916 square miles. 
Population, 4,620,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
^J'oreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$85,000,000 $155,000,000 $240,000,000 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$56,000,000 $75,000,000 $131,000,000 

Principal Exports: Minerals, sugar, cotton, wool, rubber, 
hides and skins. 

Principal Imports: Comestibles and condiments; tools, ships' 
stores, machines and vehicles; cotton textiles and manufactures; 
stones, earths, coal, glass, and chinaware. 

Transportation Facilities: 1,800 miles of railways, with 
over 2,000 miles under construction or projected; steamship con- 
nections with all parts of the world ; ocean-going steamships reach 
eastern Peru through Brazil via the Amazon; busy coastwise 
service; steamship navigation on Lake Titicaca; 10,557 miles of 
telegraph lines; 11,000 miles of telephone lines; 16 wireless 
telegraph stations. 

Currency: Monetary unit, the gold libra (pound): value, 
$4.8665, or the same as the pound sterling. The libra is divided 
into 10 soles, and the sol has 100 centavos. Peru is on an entirely 
gold basis, and all calculations are made in soles or libras (ab- 
breviation for the libra peruana, or Peruvian pound, is "Lp."). 

Weights and Measures: the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) : Jan. 1, 6; Feb. 27, 28; 
March 19; Apr. 13, 14; May 25; June 15, 29; July 28, 29, 30; 
(lug. 15, 30; Sept. 24; Oct. 12; Nov. 1, 16; Dec. 8, 25. 



378 Appendix 

March 19 is the day of San Jose (St. Joseph) ; Jvdy 28, 29, 30, 
National Holidays commemorating Independence ; Aug. 30, Samta 
Rosa de Lima; Sept. 24, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes (Our 
Lady of Eansom). The other holidays are those common to 
Latin America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Lima (capital): Population, 176,467; Important News- 
papers, El Peru, El Comercio, La Prensa, El Tiempo, La Cronica, 
La Nueva Union: West Coast Leader (English weekly): Sud 
America, El Hogar, Maiiana, Excelsior, Variedades, Mundial 
(weeklies) : Hotels, Maury, Franeia-Inglaterra, Cardinal, Ameri- 
cano, Gran, Central. 

Arequipa: Population, 55,000: Important Newspapers, EI 
Pueblo, El Deber, La Federacion, El Heraldo: La Patria 
(weekly) : Hotels, Central, Panama, Royal, Franeia-Inglaterra, 
Intemacional, Gran. 

Callao : Population, 47,171 : Principal Newspaper, El Callao : 
Hotels, Bristol, Intemacional, Peninsula, Blanco, Gran. 

Cuzco: Population, 15,000: Important Newspapers, El Sol, 
El Naeional El Comercio: Hotels, Angel Gasco, Maury, Pull- 
man, Central, Europa. 

Iquitos: Population, about 20,000: Important Newspapers, 
El Comercio, El Oriente, La Mariana : Hotels, Continental, Loro, 
Bella Vista, Colon, Union. 

Salvador 
Area, 13,176 square miles. 
Population, 1,700,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$18,000,000 $25,000,000 $43,000,000 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$13,200,000 $20,000,000 $33,200,000 

Principal Exports : Coffee, gold, silver, sugar, indigo, balsam, 
hides, rubber, tobacco, rice. 

Principal Imports : Cotton cloth and manufactures, hardware, 
pharmaceutical supplies, flour, boots and shoes, cotton yarn, 
machinery. 

Transportation Facilities : a railway line of 65 miles between 
the principal port, Acajutla, and the capital, San Salvador; a 
branch line of 25 miles to Santa Ana; a line of 9 miles from. 



Appendix 379 

San Salvador to Santa Teela; the line from Ateoa to Santa Ana 
is now in operation; connection of La Union with ports in 
Guatemala is now under construction and will give Salvador an 
outlet to the Atlantic Coast; steamship service to other Cdhtral 
American ports on the Pacific, to the west coast of the United 
States, Panama, and South America; 2,521 miles of telegraph 
lines; 2,074 miles of telephone lines. 

Currency : Monetary unit, the silver peso, fluctuating with the 
rise and fall of silver: present value, about $.50. 

The currency used is convertible into silver on demand and 
has in recent years had an exchange value of about $.365. 
Weights and Measures : the metric system is in general use. 
Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1; Feb. 23, 24; 
March 1, 15; June 22, 28; July 14; Aug. 5, 6; Sept. 15; Oct. 4, 
12; Nov. 5; Dec. 25. 

March 1 is a Civic Holiday; March 15, a National Holiday 
commemorating General Morazan; Sept. 15, Independence Day; 
Nov. 5, Anniversary commemorating Generals Delgado, Arce, and 
Rodriguez. The other holidays are those common to Latin 
America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 
San Salvador (capital): Population, 80,000: Important 
Newspapers, El Diario del Salvador, La Prensa, El Diario 
Latino, La Palabra: El Mundo Ilustrado (weekly): Hotels, 
Italia, Iberia, Nuevo Mundo, Occidental, Espaiia, Pans. 

Santa Ana: Population, 59,817: Principal Newspaper, El 
Diario de Occidente: Hotels, Oriental, La Florida, Colombia- 
San Miguel: Population, 30,406: Important Newspapers, 
El Diario de Occidente; La Noticia: Principal Hotel, Hispano- 
Americano. 

Uruguay 
Area, 72,210 square miles. 
Population, 1,650,000. 
Language, Spanish. 
Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$50,091,508 $83,981,789 $134,073,297 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$15,290,135 $21,017,579 $36,307,714 

Principal Exports : Wool, hides and skins, meats and extracts, 
grease and tallow, live animals, oil-producing grains, and flour. 



380 Appendix 

Principal Imports: Groceries, textiles, iron and steel and 
manufactures, stone, glass and ehinaware, woods and manufac- 
tures, beverages, oils, chemical products, and tobacco. 

Transportation Facilities: Over 1,650 miles of railways; 
steamship lines to the principal ports of the United States and 
Europe ; transportation by water is highly important because of the 
admirable distribution of the river system; the chief inland ports 
can be reached by vessels of nine feet draft, and in some instances, 
of fourteen feet draft; over 60 telegraph and telephone stations; 
wireless telegraph station at Montevideo, at several military sta- 
tions, and in several lighthouses. 

Currency: Monetary unit, the gold peso: value, $1,034. No 
gold pieces have been coined. 

Ordinary medium of exchange, silver, banknotes and foreign 
gold coins. 

Weightsi and Measures: the metric system is obligatory. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922) : Jan. 1, 6; Feb. 27, 28; 
April 19; May 1, 2, 18, 25; June 19; July 4, 14, 18; Aug. 25; 
Sept. 20; Oct. 12; Nov. 2; Dee. 8, 25. 

Feb. 28 commemorates the Proclamation of Independence 
(1811) ; April 19, the Landing of Uruguayan Patriots (1825) ; 
May 18, the Battle of Las Piedras (1811) ; May 25, the Inde- 
pendence of the River Plate Provinces (1810) ; July 4, American 
Independence Day; July 14, Fall of the Bastille; July 18, Con- 
stitution Day (1830) ; Aug. 25, Independence of Uruguay (1825) ; 
Sept. 20, Italian Liberty Day. The other holidays are those 
common to Latin America. See wider "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Montevideo (capital): Population, 400,000: Important 
New^spapers, El Dia, El Plata, La Tribuna Popular, La Razon, 
El Siglo, El Telegrafo, El Bien Publico, La Manana, El Diario 
Espaiiol, El Diario Comercial, La Democracia: The Montevideo 
Times (English) : El Mundo Uruguayo (weekly) : La Propa- 
ganda, El Estanciero (bi-weekly) : Selecta (monthly) : Hotels, 
Grand, Oriental, Central, Alhambra, Piramides, Colon, Florida, 
Solis, Espana, Balcaree, Barcelona, Campiotti, Severi, Bianchi, 
Carrasco. 

Paysandu: Population, 32,000: Important Newspapers, El 
Diario, La Republica, El Telegrafo : Principal Hotel, Concordia. 

Salto: Population, 30,000: Important Newspapers, Ecos 
del Progreso, La Tarde, El Diario Nuevo, La Tribuna Saltena: 
Principal Hotel, Concordia. 

Venezuela 
Area, 393,976 square miles. 
Population, 3,000,000. 
Language, Spanish. 



Appendix 381 

Foreign Commerce (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$59,589,129 $32,431,499 $92,020,628 

Trade with the United States (1920) : 

Imports Exports Total 

$35,000,000 $16,500,000 $51,500,000 

Principal Exports: Coffee, cacao, balata, hides and skins, 
sugar, gold, tobacco, asphalt, cattle, maize, heron phimes. 

Principal Imports': Cotton textiles, wheat flour, machinery, 
drugs and medicines, papers, rice, oils. 

Transportation Facilities : 650 miles of railways ; steamship 
service to the principal ports of the United States and Europe; 
special attention is paid to good roads, many excellent automobile 
highways being in operation and others under construction; 70 
navigable rivers, with a total navigable length of over 6,000 
miles; regular steamship service on the Orinoco, Apure, and 
Portuguesa Rivers; ocean-going vessels enter Lake Maracaibo, 
which covers an area of 8,000 square miles; Lake Valencia is 
navigated by small steamers; 5,814 miles of telegraph lines; 
13,715 miles of telephone lines. 

Currency: Monetary unit, the gold bolivar: value, $.193. 

The so-called peso is equivalent to 4 bolivares, and the fuerte, 
to 5 bolivares. 

Gold, silver, nickel, and copper coins and bank-notes are in 
circulation. 

Bank and Public Holidays (1922): Jan. 1, 6; March 19; 
Apr. 13, 14, 19; May 25; June 15, 24, 29; July 5; Aug. 15; 
Nov. 1; Dec. 8, 19, 25. 

Apr. 19 commemorates the first movement for Independence; 
June 24, the Battle of Carabobo; July 5, Independence Day; 
Dee. 19 is a National Holiday. The other holidays are those 
common to Latin America. See under "Argentina." 

Principal Cities (for list of banks, see end of appendix) : 

Caracas (capital): Population, 92,212: Important News- 
papers, El Universal, El Nuevo Diario, El Diario, El Impareial, 
El Noticiero: La Patria, La Revista (weeklies) : Hotels, Klindt, 
Gran, Continental, Alemania, Universal, Italia. 

Valencia: Population, 64,861: Important Newspapers, El 
Eco Publico, El Cronista, El Radical: La Lueha (tri-weekly) : 
Hotels, Lourdes, Olivares, Ottolina, 

Maracaibo: Population, 48,490: Important Newspapers, El 
Fonografo, La Manana, El Panorama, El Avisador, El Liberal, 
Ecos de Zulia: El Comercio (semi-weekly): Hotels, Bismarck, 
Colon, Los Andes, Zulia. 



382 



Appendix 



Cindad Bolivar: Population, 21,595: Important Newspapers, 
El Luchador, El Diario Comercial: Hotels, Bolivar, Gran, 
Venezuela, Central, Union, Manoni. 

Puerto Oabello: Population, 20,000 : Important Newspapers, 
El Boletin de Notieias, El Diario de Avisos, El Teson, El Es- 
tandarte: Hotels, Universal, Banos, Hotel de France. 



A'ppendix 383 



POSTAL INFORMATION 

Domestic (United States) Postal Rates apply to Argentina, 
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, 
Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Sal- 
vador, and Peru. 

Postal rates to the other Latin American republics are as 
follows: First Class. — Letters. — ^Postage on letters is five (5) 
cents for the first ounce or fraction thereof, and three (3) cents 
for each additional ounce or fraction thereof. 

Postal cards. — The postage on a single card bearing a written 
communication is two (2) cents for each ounce or fraction thereof. 

Registration. — All valuable matter should be registered. 
Registration fee, ten (10) cents additional. 

Third Class. — ^Includes newspapers, periodicals, books, pamph- 
lets, sheet music, cards, proofs of printing, etc. 

The postage is one (1) cent for each two (2) ounces or 
fraction thereof. The limit of weight is four pounds six ounces 
(4 lbs. 6 oz.). The limit of size is eighteen (18) inches in one 
direction, except printed matter in rolls which may be thirty 
(30) inches in length and four (4) inches in diameter. 

Registration.— All valuable matter should be registered. The 
registration fee is ten (10) cents additional. 

Parcel-Post. Merchandise parcel-post. — Postage is twelve 
(12) cents for each pound or fraction thereof. Greatest length, 
three (3) feet six (6) inches. Greatest length and girth com- 
bined, six (6) feet. 

Registration. — ^AU valuable matter should be registered. Regis- 
tration fee, ten (10) cents additional. 

Except. — That parcel-post to the following countries cannot 
be registered: Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. 

Note. — Parcel-post packages may be sent to nearly all the 
Latin American countries, but in some eases, not to all cities or 
towns within a particular republic. Specific information should 
be obtained at United States postoffices. 

Mail Time to Principal Cities of South America 

The time given to the South American cities mentioned in this 
table is the sailing or transit period. Consideration, however, 
should be given to the possibility of 10 or 15 days intervening 
between the date a letter is posted and the actual sailing date 
of steamer. This allowance is applicable likewise to sailings from 



984 



Appendix 



South America, and should be considered when calculating the 
possible time to elapse before a reply may be expected to South 
American mail. 



Mail Time to 



Reply may 
be expected 
Days in Days 

Argentina 
Buenos Aires ... 26 75 

Rosario 28 80 

Bolivia 

La Paz 25 75 

Sucre 25 75 

Oruro 25 75 

Brazil 

Rio de Janeiro. 18 

Santos 21 

Bahia 15 

Pernambuco ... 14 
Porto Alegre . . .25 
Sao Paulo ....20 
Para 16 



Chile 

Santiago 29 

Valparaiso 28 

Punta Arenas. .40 



65 
65 
60 
55 
80 
65 
60 

75 

75 

110 



Reply may 
be expected 
Days in Days 

Colombia 

Bogota 23 65 

Medellin 23 65 

Ecuador 

Quito 15 55 

Guayaquil 15 55 

Paraguay 
Asuncion . 



.35 100 



Peru 

Lima 18 

Callao 17 

Uruguay 

Montevideo 25 

Venezuela 

Caracas 12 

Maracaibo .... 14 



55 
55 

75 

45 
45 



It should be noted that the running time to Rio de Janeiro 
has been shortened to about 12 days by an American line and 
that 5 or 6 more days are taken to reach Buenos Aires. 



Appendix 385 



DISTANCES TO SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL PORTS 
AND CITIES OF LATIN AMERICA FROM NEW 
YORK, NEW ORLEANS, AND SAN FRANCISCO. 

(Water routes in nautical miles: land routes in statute miles. 
A nautical mUe, or knot, is equivalent to 1.151 statute miles.) 

PROM 

Port and Route New York New Orleans San Francisco 

Buenos Aires 

direct 5,868 

via Strait of Magellan 

Callao, Peru 

via Panama Canal 3,779 

direct 

Habana (Havana) 

direct 1,227 

via Panama Canal 

Mexico City 

by land 2,898 

by land and water 2,395 

Panama (western end of 

Panama Canal) 3,277 

via Canal and Colon.... 2,028 1,427 

Pernambuco, Brazil 

direct 3,696 3,969 

via Panama Canal 6,530 

Punta Arenas, Chile 6,890 7,340 6,199 

Rio de Janeiro 

direct 4,778 5,218 

via Panama Canal.. - 7,678 

Valparaiso, Chile 

direct 5,140 

via Panama Canal 4,637 4,035 

(Note: Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, by rail, 888 miles.) 



6,318 


7,544 


3,264 


4,012 


597 


4,337 


1,526 
1,172 


2,512 
2,142 



386 Appendix 



CREDIT CONDITIONS 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

Reports relative to Latin American houses may be obtained 
from practically the same sources as those in the United States. 
They are as follows: (a) American banks having correspondents 
in Latin America; (6) foreign or American houses, whose names 
are given as reference, or noted by the salesman; (c) mercantile 
agencies (Bradstreet Company and R. G. Dun & Co.); (d) 
foreign banks with whom Latin Americans have filed their 
references; (e) banks or financial institutions in the Latin Ameri- 
can country where orders originate; (/) home office of American 
bank with branch in Latin America; (g) business organizations 
such as the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, the American 
Manufacturers' Export Association, the National Association of 
Manufacturers; (h) exchange service conducted by the National 
Association of Credit Men, and other bodies; (i) express com- 
panies with foreign departments; (j) foreign trade papers, jour- 
nals, etc. (From Trading with Latin America, by E. B. Pilsinger: 
published by the Irving National Bank, New York, 1917.) 



Appendix 387 



BRANCHES OF AMERICAN BANKS AND INSTITUTIONS 
AFFILIATED WITH AMERICAN BANKS IN LATIN 
AMERICA 

Abbreviations: N. 0. B., National City Bank of New York 

I. B. C, International Banking Corporation, New 
York 

M. B. A., Mercantile Bank of the Americas, New 
York 

F. N. B., First National Bank, Boston, Mass. 

A. F. B. C, American Foreign Banking Corpora- 
tion, New York 

Aff. Inst., Affiliated institution (the name of the 
American affiliated bank follows this abbrevia- 
tion). 

Argentina 
Buenos Aires, N. C. B. and F. N. B. 
Sub-branch 
Plaza Once, N. C. B. 
Rosario, N. C. B. 

Bolivia 
La Paz, W. R. Grace y, Compania 

Brazil 

Bahia, N. C. B. 

Para, American Bank of Brazil, Aflf. Inst., M. B. A. 

Pernambuco, American Bank of Brazil, Aff. Inst., M, B. A., 

and N. C. B. 
Porto Alegre, N. C. B. 
Rio de Janeiro, N. C. B. and A. F. B. C. 

Chile 

Santiago, N. C. B. 
Valparaiso, N. C. B. 

Colombia 
Barranquilla, N. C. B. 
Bogota, N. C. B. 
Cali, A. F. B. C. 
Medellin, N. C. B. 
Also, The branches of the Banco Mercantil Americano de 



388 Appendix 

Colombia, affiliated with the Mercantile Bank of the 
Americas: located at Armenia, Barranquilla, Bogota, 
Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cucuta, Girardot, Honda, 
Manizales, and Medellin (Colombia). 

Costa Rica 
San Jose, Banco Mercantil de Costa Rica, Aff. Inst., M. B. A. 

Cuba 

Habana, N. C. B., A. F. B. C, Banco Mercantil Americano 
de Cuba, Aff. Inst., M. B. A., and Fidelity and Deposit 
Co. of Maryland. 
Sub-branch, Cuatro Caminos, N. C. B. 
Sub-branch, Galiano, N. C. B. 
Ciego de Avila, N. C. B. and Banco MercantU Americano de 
Cuba, Aff. Inst., M. B. A. 
Also, in Cuba, the branches of the National City Bank at 
Artemisa, Bayamo, Caibarien, Camagiiey, Cardenas, Cien- 
fuegos, Colon, Cruces, Guantanamo, Manzanillo, Matanzas, 
Nuevitas, Pinar del Rio, Placetas del Norte, Remedies, 
Sagua la Grande, Sancti Spiritus, Santa Clara, Santiago, 
Union de Reyes, Yaguajay. 

Dominican Republic 

At Barahona, Puerto Plata, Sanchez, San Pedro de Macoris, 
Santiago de los Caballeros, Santo Domingo: branches of 
the International Banking Corporation. 

Haiti 

Port au Prince, A. F. B. C. 

Honduras 

San Pedro Sula, A.F.B.C. 
Also, Banco Atlantida, affiliated with the Mercantile Bank 
of the Americas, at Amapala, La Ceiba, Puerto Cortes, 
San Pedro Sula, Tela, Tegucigalpa (Honduras). 

Nicaragua 

At Bluefields, Leon, Managua, and Granada: National Bank 
of Nicaragua, affiliated with the Mercantile Bank of the 
Americas 

Panama 

Colon, 7. B. C. 

Cristobal, A. F. B. C. 

Panama, I. B. C. and A. F. B. C. 



Appendix S89 

pERlt 

Lima, N. C. B., the Banco Mereantil Americano del Peru, Aff. 
Inst., M. B. A., and W. R. Grace and Co. 
Also, at Arequipa, Callao, Chielayo, Piura, and Trujillo, 
branches of the Banco Mereantil Americano del Peru, Aff. 
Inst., M. B. A. 

Uruguay 

Montevideo, N. C. B. 

Sub-branch, Calle Rondeau, N. C. B. 

Venezuela 

Ciudad Bolivar, N. C. B. 

Caracas, N. C. B. and the Banco Mereantil Americano de Cara- 
cas, Aff. Inst., M. B. A. 
Maracaibo, N. C. B. 

Also, at La Guaira, Maracaibo, and Puerto Cabello, branches 
of the Banco Mereantil Americano de Caracas, affiliated 
with the Mercantile Bank of the Americas. 



390 Ajpjpendix 



PRINCIPAL BANKS 

(This list does not include the branches of United States banks in 
Latin America. Far United States banks, see the preceding list. The 
countries are arranged alphabetically, and the cities are arranged in 
the order used in the first part of the Appendix, thus making reference 
an easy matter.) 

Argentina 

Buenos Aires 

Banco de la Naeion Argentina 

London & Eiver Plate Bank, Limited 

British Bank of South America, Limited 

London & Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Banco Anglo-Sud-Americano 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco Germanico de la America del Sud 

Banco de la Provineia de Buenos Aires 

Banco Credito Popular 

Banco Espaiiol del Rio de la Plata 

Banco Frances e Italiano para America del Sud 

Banque Frangaise pour le Commerce et I'lndustrie 

Banco Popular Argentino 

Royal Bank of Canada 

Tornquist y Compania 

Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited 
Rosario 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco Alemdn Transatlantico 

Banco de la Naei6n Argentina 

British Bank of South America, Limited 

London and Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Banque Frangaise et Italienne pour I'Amerique du Sud 
Cordoba 

Banco Alemdn Transatlantico 

Banco de la Naeion Argentina 
Banco Espanol del Rio de la Plata 
La Plata 
Banco de la Naci6n Argentina 
Banco de la Provineia de Buenos Aires 
Banco Espanol del Rio de la Plata 



Appendix 391 



Tucuman 

Banco de la Naeion Argentina 
Banco Espanol del Rio de la Plata 
Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Bahia Blanca 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 
Banco Frances del Rio de la Plata 
Banco Espanol del Rio de la Plata 
Banco Alemdn Transatlantico 

Bolivia 

La Paz 

Banco Nacional de Bolivia 

Banco Francisco Argandona 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco de la Naeion Boliviana 

Banco Mercantil 
Cochabamba 

Banco de la Naeion Boliviana 
Oruro 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco de la Naeion Boliviana 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 
Potosi 

Banco de la Naeion Boliviana 
SHicre 

Banco de la Naeion Boliviana 

Brazil 

Rio de Janeiro 
Banco do Brazil 
Banco Nacional Brazileiro 
Brasilianische Bank fiir Deutschland 
London & Brazilian Bank, Limited 
London & River Plate Bank, Limited 
British Bank of South America, Limited 
Banco Espaiiol del Rio de la Plata 
Banco AUemao Transatlantico 
Banco Commercial do Rio de Janeiro 
Banco do Commercio 
Banco do Estado do Rio de Janeiro 
Banco Mercantil do Rio de Janeiro 
Banco Nacional Ultramarino 
Yokohama Specie Bank 



392 Appendix 

Sao Paulo 

British Bank of South America, Limited 

London and Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Banco Nacional Ultramarino 

Banque Frangaise et Italienne pour PAmerique du Sud 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banque Italo-Belge 
Bahia 

Banco Nacional Ultramarino 

British Bank of South America, Limited 

London and Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Brasilianische Bank fur Deutschland 
Para (or Belem) 

Banco Nacional Ultramarino 

London and Brazilian Bank, Limited 
Recife (or Pernambuco) 

Banco do Recife 

Banque Frangaise et Italienne pour PAmerique du Sud 
Santos 

London and Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Banco Nacional Ultramarino 

Banque Frangaise et Italienne pour PAmerique du Sud 

Banque Italo-Belge 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 



Chile 

Santiago 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco de Chile 

Banco de Santiago 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco Nacional 

Banco Comercial de Chile 

Banco Espanol 
Valparaiso 

Banco Anglo-Sud-Americano 

Edwards y Compania 

London & River Plate Bank 

Deutsch-Siidamerikanische Bank 
Concepcion 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco Alemdn Transatlantico 
Antofagasta 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 



Appendix 393 



Iquique 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 
Punta Arenas 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Colombia 

Bogota 

Banco de Bogotd 

Banco de Colombia 

Banco del Comercio 

Banco Central 

C. Schloss y Cia 
Medellin 

Restrepos y Cia 

Banco Aleman-Antioqueno 

Banco de la Mutualidad 

Banco Dugand 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 

Banco de Sucre 

London and River Plate Bank, Limited 
Barranquilla 

Banco de la Mutualidad 

Banco Dugand 

Banco Comercial de Barranquilla 

Royal Bank of Canada 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 

Banco Aleman-Antioqueno 
Cartagena 

Banco de Bolivar 

Banco Industrial 

Pombo Hermanos 

Banco Dugand 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 
Bucaramanga 

Banco de la Mutualidad 

Banco de San Gil 

Banco de Santander 

Banco Dugand 



Costa Rica 



San Jos6 
Royal Bank of Canada 
Banco Anglo-Costarricense 
Banco Comercial 
Banco de Costa Rica 



394 Appendix 

Limon 

Banco Comercial de Costa Rica 
Felipe J. Alvarado y Cia 

Cuba 

Habana 

Banco de Cuba 

Banco Naeional de Cuba 

Bank of Nova Scotia 

La Naeional 

The Royal Bank of Canada 

The Trust Co. of Cuba 

Banco de la Habana 

Banco Espanol de la Isla de Cuba 

Mendoza y Cia 

N, Gelats y Cia 
Santiago 

Banco Espanol de la Isla de Cuba 
/Banco Naeional de Cuba 
/ Royal Bank of Canada 
''^Mantanzas 

Banco Espaiiol de la Isla de Cuba 

Banco Naeional de Cuba 

Royal Bank of Canada . 
Cienfuegos 

Banco Espaiiol de la Isla de Cuba 

Banco Naeional de Cuba 

Royal Bank of Canada 
Camagiiey 

Banco Espanol de la Isla de Cuba 

Banco Naeional de Cuba 

Royal Bank of Canada 

Dominican Republic 

S'anto Domingo 

Banco Naeional de Santo Domingo 

Royal Bank of Canada 

S. Michelena 
Santiago 

Royal Bank of Canada 

Ecuador 

Quito 
Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 
Banco de Pichineha 



Appendix 395 



Guayaquil 
Banco Comercial y Agricola 
Banco del Ecuador 
Banco Territorial 
Alvarado y Bejarano 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 
J. G. White Commercial Co., Limited 

Guatemala 

Guatemala City 

Banco Americano de Guatemala 

Banco de Guatemala 

Banco Internacional de Guatemala 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 
Quezaltenango 

Banco de Guatemala 

Banco Internacional de Guatemala 



Haiti 



Port au Prince 

Banque Nationals d 'Haiti 
F. Hermann & Company 
Robert Button & Company 
Otto Bieber & Company 



Honduras 



Tegucigalpa 

Banco de Honduras 
Daniel Fertin 
Ricardo Streber 



Mexico 



Mexico City 

Banco de Londres y Mexico 

Banco de Montreal 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 

United States and Mexican Trust Company 

Banque Frangaise du Mexique 

Canadian Bank of Commerce 

Anglo-South American Bank 

Deutsch-Siidamerikanische Bank 
Guadalajara 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 



396 Appendix 

Puebla 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 
Monterey 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 

Banque Frangaise du Mexique 

Patricio Milmo e Hijos, Sues. 

Banco de Nuevo Leon 
San Luis Potosi 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 

Banque Frangaise du Mexique 

A. Zambrano e Hijos 
Vera Cruz 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 

Banque Frangaise du Mexique 
Chihuahua 

Banco de Sonora 

Banco Minero 

Banco Nacional de Mexico 

David S. Russek and Co. 

Nicaragua 

Managua 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 

Francisco Breckmann 

A. J. Martin 

Cortes Commercial and Banking Company, Limited 

Banco Nacional de Nicaragua 



Panama 



Panama 

Panama Banking Co. 

Ehrman and Co. 
Colon 

Panama Banking Co. 



Paraguay 



Asuncion 

Banco Agricola 

Banco Mercantil del Paraguay 

Banco Paraguayo 

Banco de la Republica 

Banco de Espana y America 
Villarrica 

Banco Mercantil del Paraguay 



Appendix 397 

Peru 



Lima 

Banco Mercantil Americano del Peru 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco del Peru y Londres 

Banco Internacional del Peru 

Banco Popular 

Caja de Ahorros 
Arequipa 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco del Peru y Londres 

Banco Italiano Americano 

Banco Mercantil del Peru 
Callao 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco del Peru y Londres 

Banco Italiano 

Banco Mercantil Americano del Peru 
Cuzco 

Banco del Peru y Londres 
Iquitos 

Banco del Peru y Londres 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 

Salvador 

San Salvador 

Banco Agricola Comercial 

Banco Occidental 

Banco S'alvadoreiio 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 
Santa Ana 

Banco Salvadoreno 
San Miguel 

Banco Salvadoreno 

M. Meardi y Cia. 

Uruguay 

Montevideo 
Banco de la Republica 
Banco Popular del Uruguay 
Banco Comercial 
Banco Espaiiol 
Banco Frances 



398 Appendix 

Banco Aleman Transatlantico 

Banco Britanico de la America del Sud 

Banco Anglo-Sud- Americano 

Banco de Londres y Rio de la Plata 

London & Brazilian Bank, Limited 

Anglo-South American Bank, Limited 

Banque Italo-Belge 

Venezuela 

Caracas 

Banco de Venezuela 

Banco de Caracas 

H. L. Boulton y Cia. 

Banco Mercantil Americano de Caracas 

Commercial Bank of Spanish America, Limited 

HoUandsche Bank voor West Indie 

Royal Bank of Canada 
Maracaibo 

Royal Bank of Canada 
Ciudad Bolivar 

Royal Bank of Canada 
Puerto Cabello 

Royal Bank of Canada 



F 



Gua] 



BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS OK LATIN 

AMERICA 

Abbot, W. J., Panama and the Canal. New York, 1914. >^ 
Adams, A. A., The Plateau Peoples of South America. London, 

1915. 
Alvarez, Alexandre, Le Droit International Americain. Paris, 

1910. 
AuQHiNBAUGH, W. E., Selling Latin America. Boston, 1915. 
AuGHiNBAUGH, W. E., Advertising for Trade in Latin America. 

New York, 1922. 
Babsok, R. W., The Future of South America. Boston, 1915. 
Barrett, J., Pan America and Pan Americanism. New York, 

1915. 
Bennett, F., Forty Years in Brazil. London, 1914. 
BiGELOW, J., American Policy. The western hemisphere in rela- 
tion to the eastern. New York, 1914. 
Bingham, H., Across South America. New York, 1911. 
Bingham, H., The Monroe Doctrine^ An Obsolete Shibboleth. 

New Haven : Yale University Press, 1913. 
Bishop, F., Panama, Past and Present. New York, 1913. 
Blakeslee, G. H. (editor), Latin, America. Clark University 

addresses. New York, 1914. 
Bland, J. 0. P., Men, Manners and Morals in South America. 

London, 1920. 
Brandon, E. E., Latin American Universities and Special Schools. 

Washington, D. C, 1913. 
Bruce, G. J., Brazil and the Brazilians. New York, 1914. 
Bryce, J., South America. Observations and Impressions. New 

York, 1913. 
BuLET, E. C, North Brazil. New York, 1914. 
Buley, E, C, South Brazil. London and New York, 1914. 
Calder6n, F. Garcia, Latin America: Its Eise and Progress. 

London, 1913. 
Calvo, J. B., The Republic of Costa Rica. Chicago, 1890. 
Carson, W. E., Mexico, the Wonderland of the South (revised 

edition). New York, 1914. 
Cl^menceau, G., South America To-day. New York, 1911. 
Coolidge, a. C, The United States as a World Power. New 

York, 1909. 

399 



400 Bibliography of Recent Boohs 

Cooper, C. S., The Brasiliam and Their Country. New "^brk, 

1917. 
Cooper, C. S., Understanding South America. New York, 1918. 
^ Cosby, J. T., Latin American Monetary Systems and Exchange 

Conditions. New York, 1915. 
Dalton, L. v., Venezuela. New York, 1912. 
Denis, P., Brazil. London, First edition, 1911 : third impression, 

1919. 
Department of Commerce, Washington, D, C, Banking Oppor- 
tunities in South American Countries. 1915. 
DoMViLLE-FiFE, C. W., The Great States of South America. Lon- 
don, 1910. 
D0MViLX,E-FiFE, C. W., Guatemala and the States of Central 

America. London, 1913. 
Eder, p. J., Colombia. New York, 1913. 
Elliott, G. F., Chile. New York, 1907. 

Elliott, L. E., Brazil To-day and To-morrow. New York, 1917. 
Enock, C. R., Ecuador. New York, 1914. 
Enock, C. R., Mexico. New York, 1909. 
Enock, C. R., Peru. New York, 1911. 
^' Enock, C. R., The Republics of Central and South America. 

London, 1913. 
Enock, C. R., Spanish America. Its romance, reality, and future. 

2 vol. London, 1920. 
FiLSiNGER, E. B., Trading with Latin America. New York, 1917. 
Fyee, H. H., The Real Mexico. London, 1914. 
Hale, A., The South Americans. Indianapolis, 1907. 
Hirst, W. A., Argentina. New York, 1910. 
Hirst, W. A., A Guide to South America. New York, 1915. 
Holland, W. J., To the River Plate and Back. The narrative 

of a scientific mission to South America. New York, 1913. 
Jones, C. L., Caribbean Interests of the United States. New 

York and London, 1916. 
Koebel, W. H., Central America. New York, 1917. 
Koebel, W. H., Modern Chile. London, 1913. 
Koebel, W. H., Paraguay. New York, 1917. 
Koebel, W. H., The South Americans. New York, 1915. 
Koebel, W. H., Uruguay. London, 1911. 
Koebel, W. H. (editor), Anglo-South American Handbook for 

1921. London. 
Lakden, W., Argentine Plains and Andine Glaciers. London, 

1911. 
Latane', J. H., The United States and Latin America. Garden 

City, N. Y., 1920. 
Levine, v., Colombia. New York, 1914. 



Bibliography of Recent Books 401 

Lima, Manoel de Oliveira, The Evolution of Brazil Compared 

with that of Spanish and Anglo-Saxon America. Leland 

Stanford University Publications. 1914. 
Lough, W. H., Financial Developments in South American Coun- 
tries. Washington, 1915. 
Macdonald, a. K., Picturesque Paraguay. London, 1911. 
MacHugh, R. J., Modern Mexico. London, 1914. 
Martin, P. F., Mexico of the Twentieth Century. London, 1907. 
Martin, P. F., Salvador of the Twentieth Century. London, 1911. 
Martinez, A. B., and Lewandowski, M., The Argentine in the 

Twentieth Century. London, 1911. 
Martinez, A. B., Baedeker of the Argentine Bepublic. New 

York and London, 1916. 
O'Malley, F., Our South American Trade and its Financing. 

National City Bank of New York. 1920. 
Peixotto, E., Pacific Shores From Panama. New York, 1913. 
Pepper, C. M., Panama to Patagonia. New York, 1906. 
Reid, W. a., The Young Man's Chances in South and Central 

America, Washington, D. C, 1914. 
Reyes, R., The Two Americas. New York, 1914. 
Robertson, W. S., Bise of the Spanish- American Bepublics. 

New York, 1918. 
Robinson, A. G., Cuba, Old and New. New York, 1915. 
Roosevelt, T., Through the Brazilian Wilderness. New York, 

1914. 
Root, E., Latin America and the United States. Cambridge: 

Harvard University Press, 1917. 
Ross, E. A., South of Panama. New York, 1915. 
Ross, G., Argentina and Uruguay. New York, 1916. 
RowE, L. S., The United States and Porto Bico. 1904. 
RUHL, A., The Other Americans. New York, 1908. 
ScHOENRiCH, 0., Santo Domingo. New York, 1918. 
Shepherd, W. R., Central and South America. London, 1914. 
Shepherd, W. R., The Hispanic Nations of the New World. New 

Haven: Yale University Press, 1919. 
Shepherd, W. R., Latin America. New York, 1914. 
Speer, R. E., South American Problems. New York, 1912. 
Spence, L., Mexico of the Mexicans. New York, 1917. 
Sweet, W. W., A History of Latin America. New York, 1919. 
Todd, M., Peru: A Land of Contrasts. Boston, 1914. 
Van Dyke, H. W., Through South America. New York, 1912. 
Verrill, a. H., Cuba Past and Present. New York, 1914. 
Verrill, a. H., Getting Together With Latin America. New 

York, 1918. 
Walle, p., Bolivia. London, 1914. 



402 Bibliography of Recent Books 

Whitney, C, The Flowing Boad. Adventures on the great rivers 
of South America. Philadelphia and London, 1912. 

WiLCX)x, M., AND RiNE3, G. E., The Encyclopedia of Latin 
America. New York, 1917. 

Winter, N. 0., Argentina and Her People of To-day. Boston, 
1911. 

Wright, M. R., The Bepuhlic of Chile. Phildelphia, 1914. 

Zahm, J. A., (MozANS, H. J.), Along the Andes and Down the 
Amazon. New York and London, 1911. 

Zahm, J, A., (Mozans, H. J.), Up the Orinoco and Down the 
Magdalena. New York and London, 1910. 

Zahm, J. A., (Mozans, H. J.), Through South America's South- 
land. New York and London, 1916. 



INDEX 



A. B. C. alliance, the, 156, 167 

Aconcagua, Mt., grandeur of, 15 

Agriculture, as one of chief indus- 
tries of Latin America, 53; 
products of, 54-55; intensive 
methods of, 55-57; scientific 
teaching of, 248; splendid op- 
portvuiities in, for "average 
man," 324-327 

Alcohohsm, campaign against, in 
Latin America, 216-219 

Algorta, Ruperto, foimder of Na- 
tional Temperance League ia 

. Peru, 217 

Alvarez, Alejandro, cited on Mon- 
roe Doctrine, 150, 151; quoted, 
152 

Amazon River, as means of trans- 
portation, 13; vastness of, 14 

America, trade of, with Latin 
America, 107-109, 307-318. See 
United States 

American, appropriation of name, 
by people of United States, 334r- 
336 

Americans, Latin-American view 
of, 333-358 

Argentina, size of, 10; coasthne 
of, 12; rivers of, 14; great 
estates in, 25; statistics of ship- 
ping of, 33; immigration of 
Italians into, 37-38; Germans 
in, 43; railroads of, 47; grape- 
raising in, 55; fruit-growing 
possibilities of, 55; cattle-rais- 
ing in, 57-59; refrigerated beef 
from, 61; government restric- 
tions on oil industry in, 66; 
scientific study of forests of, 78- 
79; cotton-manufacturing in, 
87; growth of manufacturing 
in, 89; labor conditions in, 96- 
97; labor legislation in, 99; 



protection of children in indus- 
tries in, 101; trade of United 
States with, 108, 109; British 
capital invested in first bank in, 
116; pubhc education in, 230- 
231, 232-233; normal schools 
in, 243; technical and voca- 
tional education in, 245-246, 
247-248; National Library of, 
252; painters of, 273-274; 
women teachers in, 296; coloni- 
zation conditions in, 328-329; 
summary of useful information 
concerning, 359-360; banks and 
banking institutions in, 387, 390- 
391 

Art and artists of Latin America, 
255, 273-276 

Asphalt, production of, 54 

Atacama region, ChQe, iron de- 
posits in, 72 

Athletics, new interest in, among 
Latin Americans, 209-212 

Aughinbaugh, W. E., quoted on 
Latin-American trade, 109-110; 
on subway in Buenos Aires, 131 

Austin, O. P., statistician, 62 

Austro-German immigration so- 
ciety, for settlement in Brazil, 
42 

Automobile clubs, road-making 
stimulated by, 52 

Automobiles, effects of, 50; roads 
for, in Brazil, 51; roads for, 
about Rio de Janeiro, 51 

Automobile school, national, in 
Honduras, 250 

Avenida do Rio Branco, Rio 
Janeiro, 23 

Babson, Roger, Fuiure of South 
America, cited, 17; quoted, 82- 
83; predictions of, 168; advice 



403 



404 



Index 



of, concerning settling in South 
America, 331 
Bananas, production of, 55 
Banks, establishment of early, by 
British capital, 116-117; Amer- 
ican, in Latin America, 131-132, 
387-389; principal Latin Amer- 
ican, 390-398 
Barbosa, Ruy, Brazilian leader, 

183 
Barrett, John, former Director of 

Pan-American Union, 128 
Baseball in Caribbean republics, 

210 
Bello, Andres, Venezuelan scholar 
and poet, 255; sketch of career 
and work of, 266-267 
Bengston, Nels A., oil expert, 56 
Berasconi, Fehx, educational foun- 
dation established by, 245 
Bingham, Hiram, cited on Monroe 
Doctrine, 137, 157; quoted, 
204-205 
Biobio River, size of, 14 
Bismuth, from Bohvia, 54 
Blanco-Fombona, Rxrfino, quoted 

on Sarmiento, 269 
Bland, J. O. P., quoted concerning 
need for roads, 51; on Latin- 
American patriotism, 197-198; 
quoted, 222; on Percival Far- 
quhar, 312 
Blue Diamond S. S. Line, 33 
Bogota, temperature at, 17; hous- 
ing for workingmen in, 104 
Bolivar, Sim6n, ideals of, 169-170 
Bohvia, silver mines of, 11; tin 
production in, 11, 54; moim- 
tains of, 16; Indians in, 20; 
project for estabhshing Ameri- 
can families in, 44; mineral 
resources of, 54; prospects for 
cattle-raising in, 59-60; gov- 
ernment restrictions on oil in- 
dustry in, 66, 68-69; temper- 
ance movement in, 217; coloni- 
zation conditions in, 329; sta- 
tistics of, and useful information 
concerning, 360-361; banks and 
banking institutions in, 387, 
391 
Boston, First National Bank of, 
banking connections with Latin 
America, 132, 387-388 



Boston University, branch of, in 
Havana, 332 

Braden interests in Latin America, 
311, 316 

Brandon, Edgar E., quoted, 241; 
on vocational education of 
women, 297-298 

Brazil, size of, 6, 9; precious 
stones from, 11, 64; iron de- 
posits in, 11; coastline of, 12; 
river system of, 13-14; water- 
falls and water-power of, 14-15; 
climate of, 17; Indians in, 20; 
number of negroes in, 20; form 
of govermnent of, 30-31; Ital- 
ians in, 38-39; German immigra- 
tion into, 40-41; railroads of, 
47-48; roads in, 51; agricul- 
tural productions of, 53; dia- 
mond production of, 54; fruit- 
growing possibilities of, 55; 
cattle-raising in, 57; as a com- 
ing cattle center, 60-61; reports 
of oil deposits in, 71; coal in, 
75; lumber industry in, 77; 
cotton growing and manufac- 
ture in, 84-85; manufacture of 
rubber articles in, 88; future 
manufacturing centers of, 90- 
91; new manufactures and 
manufacturing projects of, 91- 
92; trade of United States with, 
108, 109; active part taken by, 
against Germans in Exu-opean 
war, 148; a clear-cut nation by 
itself, 182-183; pubhc educa- 
tion m, 235-236, 237; technical 
and vocational education in, 
248-250; colonization condi- 
tions in, 329-330; summary of 
useful information concerning, 
361-363; banks and banking 
institutions in, 387, 391-392 

Brazil Railway Company, extent 
9f business of, 312-313 

British in Latin America, 43-44. 
See Great Britain 

Bronson, W. C, quoted, 257 

Brooks, John Graham, As Others 
See Us by, quoted, 204, 354 

Bryce, James, predictions by, 25; 
South America by, cited and 
quoted, 185-186, 190-191, 203 

Buenos Aires, energy and progres- 



Indest 



m 



Siveness of people of, 23; public 
works, club-houses, newspapers, 
etc., of, 23-24; Jockey Club in, 
26; amount of shipping at, 32- 
33; Italians in, 38; British 
colony in, 44; railroads radiat- 
ing from, 47; shipment of 
refrigerated beef from, 61; story 
of subway in, 131; headquar- 
ters of First National Bank of 
Boston in, 132; boating about, 
211; socialization of newspaper 
plant in, 216; First Habitation 
Congress in, 21&-220; People's 
University of, 251 
Burbidge, Sir Woodman, quoted, 
118 

Cacao, production of, 53 

Calder6n, F. G., pubUcist, 184; 
quoted, 196-197 

Canada, excelled by Uruguay in 
cattle-raising, 57 

Caribbean countries, poUcy of 
United States toward, 142-144 

Cattle-raising, 53; extent of, 57- 
58 

Cauca River, 13 

Cebridn, Juan C, advocate of 
term "Hispanic America," 178 

Central America, Republic of, 
estabUshment of, 172-175. See 
Federation of Central America 

Central American Union, 167, 169 

Cereals, production of, 53 

Chaco, El, 19; German settlers in, 
43 

Chapala, Lake, as a summer re- 
sort, 13 

Children, protection of, in indus- 
tries, 100-102 

Children's League of Temperance, 
in Peru, 217 

Child-welfare work of Latin- 
American women, 302-304 

Chile, copper from, 11; coal and 
oil production in, 11; coastline 
of, 12; lake region of, 13; rivers 
of, 14, 15; climate and prod- 
ucts of, 18; few negroes in, 20; 
Germans in, 39-40, 43; British 
settlers in, 44; railroads of, 48; 
public roads in, 51; mineral 
resoiu-ces of, 54; ohve-growing 



in, 55: fruit-grdWing possibil- 
ities of, 55; oil industry in, 69; 
iron deposits in, 72; coal in, 75- 
76; lumber industry in, 77-78; 
growth of manufacturing in, 89- 
90; prospects for industrial 
prosperity in, 90; temperance 
question in, 217-218; public 
education in, 231, 233-235 
normal schools in, 243-244 
technical instruction in, 247 
trade schools for girls in, 295 
useful information about, sum- 
marized, 363-364; banks and 
banking institutions in, 387, 
392-393 

Church, F., on mountain scenery 
of Latin America, 16 

Cities, prospects for Latin-Amer- 
ican, 24-25; metropolitan, of 
United States not a fair stand- 
ard for American life as a whole, 
346-347 

Cl^menceau, quoted on military 
barracks at Sao Paulo, 24; on 
labor legislation in South Amer- 
ica, 98-99; quoted, 215 

CUmate, of Latin America, 16-19; 
lack of relation between crea- 
tive power of cultural repre- 
sentatives of Latin America 
and, 256 

Coal, mining of, in Latin America, 
11; general situation as to, 72- 
73; location of most important 
deposits, 73-76 

Coastlines of Latin- American 
countries, 12 

Coffee, production of, 53 

Coffee plantations, ItaUans on, 39 

Colby, Bainbridge, quoted on size 
of Brazil, 5; on Col6n Theatre 
in Buenos Aires, 24 

Colleges, establishment of Amer- 
ican, in Latin America, 331-332. 
See Universities 

Colombia, size of, 10; rivers of, 
13; cUmate of, 17; change of 
name to "Republic of Colom- 
bia," 30; platinum from, 54; 
prospects for cattle-raising in, 
59-60; oil industry in, 66, 69- 
71; coal in, 74; cotton-growing 
and manufacture in, 86; United 



tndet 



States reparations to, 144, 146; 
temperance movement in, 217; 
public education in, 229-230; 
summary of information con- 
cerning, 364-365; banks and 
banking institutions in, 387- 
388, 393 

Colonization, conditions as to, in 
Latin America^ 327-330; bene- 
ficial international results of, 
330-332 

Commerce of Latin America, 21 

Coolidge, A. C, cited on Monroe 
Doctrine, 137; prediction of, 
regarding Germans of Brazil, 
149 

Cooper, Clayton S., on German 
colonists in Chile, 40; quoted, 
215 

Copper, production of, in Chile, 
11,54 

Cordero, Rafael, cigar-maker and 
teacher, 228 

Corn, production of, 53 

Costa Rica, size of, 10; govern- 
ment royalty on oil in, 65; 
reasons for not joining Federa- 
tion of Central America, 172, 
173-174; past history of, 175- 
176; useful information con- 
cerning, summarized, 365-366; 
banks and banking institutions 
in, 388, 393-394 

Cotton, 53; from Peru, 55; pro- 
duction and manufacture of, in 
Brazil, 84-85 

Com-tesy, of Latin Americans, 
207; susceptibility of Latin 
Americans to, 352-353 

Credit, sources of information con- 
cerning conditions of, 386 

Cristdbal, office building of ship- 
ping interests at, 35 

Crops of Rio Grande do Sul, 17-18 

Cruz, Oswaldo, noted medical sci- 
ence, 214 

Cuba, roads in, 50; asphalt from, 
54; agricultural productivity of, 
54-55; iron deposits in, 72; 
labor legislation in, 100; trade 
of United States with, 108, 109; 
healthfulness of, 213; agricul- 
tural opportunities in, 325-327; 
statistics and useful information 



concerning, 366-367; banks and 

banking institutions in, 388, 394 
Cultm-al development of Latin 

America, 255-278 
Customs, foreign influences on 

Latin American, 206-209; 

American, distasteful to Latin 

Americans and Europeans, 353- 

355 

Darlo, Rub6n, poet, 255; sketch 
of career and work of, 270-271; 
ode To Roosevelt by, 271 

Day, Clive, History of Commerce, 
quoted, 105 

Department stores, European in 
Latin America, 320-321 

Deserts of Latin America, 11 

Diamonds from Brazil, 11, 54 

Distances to Latin America from 
United States, 28-29; table of, 
385 

Doheny, E. L., oil capitahst, 62, 
314 

Dominican Republic, branches of 
International Banking Corpora- 
tion of New York in, 133; pub- 
lic education in, 231; summary 
of useful information concern- 
ing, 367-368; banks and bank- 
ing institutions in, 388, 394 

DomviUe-Fife, C. W., quoted on 
river system of Brazil, 13-14; 
on coal in Peru, 75 

Drago Doctrine, formxilation of, 
154 

Drama in Latin America, 277 

Ecuador, Avenue of Volcanoes in, 
15; climate of, 16-17; Indians 
in, 20; railroad of, 48; coal in, 
74; cotton growing and manu- 
facture in, 86; pubUc education 
in, 231, 237; teaching of sanita- 
tion in, 237; summary of useful 
information concernmg, 368- 
369; banks in, 394-395 

Education, under the old regime, 
in Latin America, 227-229; pub- 
lic, of recent date, 229-231; 
zones of, 231-234; secondary, 
239-240; in universities, 241- 
242; technical and vocational, 
245-251; of women, 290-292; 



Index 



407 



vocational, for girls, 292-293; 
defect in American, relative to 
Latin America, 356-357 

Edwards, Ricardo Salas, quoted 
on scope of women's activities, 
289-290 

Efl&ciency, Latin-American opin- 
ion of, 344 

Electrical improvements, 15 

Elliott, Lilian E., quoted, 6, 130; 
on revolutions in industries, 56; 
on Brazil Railway Company, 
313; on O Jornal do Commerdo, 
351 

Emeralds, from Colombia, 54 

Energy, examples of, found in 
Latin America, 22-24 

Engineering, technical training in, 
249 

England, influence of, on Latin- 
American customs and man- 
ners, 206-207, 209 

Englishman, as a business man in 
Latin America, 116-119. See 
Great Britain 

Entente idea among Latin-Amer- 
ican countries, 203 

Espinosa, Aurelio M., advocate 
of term "Hispanic America," 
178 

Farquhar, Percival, head of Brazil 
Railway Company, 312-313 

Federation of Central America, 
169, 171-172; antecedents of, 
175-177 

Feminist movement in Latin 
America, 285-290 

Finlay, Carlos Juan, Cuban phy- 
sician, 213 

Flag, love of Latin Americans for 
their national, 197-198 

Football in southern republics, 
210-211 

Foreign influences on social usage, 
206-209 

Foreign interests, paramount, in 
Latin America, 107-135 

France, influence of, on Latin- 
American customs and manners, 
206-207 

Free trade, idea of, among Latin- 
American repubUcs, 167-168; 
and rapprochement, 168-169 



Fruit, at Bogotd,, 17 
Fruit-growing, 5o 
Funch-Edye S. S. Line, 33 

Gambhng, propensities for, 209- 
210 

Gaucho, as a national hero, 199; 
Kterature of the, 199-200 

Germans, immigration of, into 
Latin America, 39; in Valdivia, 
Chile, 39-40 

Germany, advent of, in Latin- 
American trade, 112; trade 
drive of, in Latin America, 119- 
123; doctrine of "service" of, 
appUed to international trade, 
123-125; regaining of former 
position by, 125-126 

Girls, vocational education of, 
292-295 

Grace & Company, trade of, with 
Latin America, 126; enormous 
business done by, 312 

Great Britain, immigrants from, 
into Latin America, 43-44; 
period of ascendancy of, in 
Latin- American trade, 112; so- 
hcitude of, for Latin-American 
markets, 113-114; confidence 
of, in Latin America, 114-116; 
Latin-American trust in man- 
agement by representatives of, 
116-119; comparison of Amer- 
ican shipping with that of, 
130 

Green, Edward, cotton expert, 56 

Guatemala, roads in, 50; oil in- 
dustry in, 65; lumber industry 
in, 78; member of Federation 
of Central America, 172; past 
history of, 175-176; pubUc 
education in, 237; useful in- 
formation concerning, summa- 
rized, 369-370; banks in, 395 

Guayaquil, distance to, from New 
York, 28 

Guayaquil-Quito railroad, 48 

Guayra FaUs, Paraguay, 14^15 

Guggenheim interests, extent of, 
311-312 

Habitation Congress, meeting of, 

219-220 
Haiti, useful information concern- 



408 



Index 



ing, 370-371; banks and bank- 
ing institutions in, 388, 395 

Harding, President, reaffirmation 
of Monroe Doctrine by, 138 

Health, measures for protection of, 
212-215 

Highways, development of, in 
Latin America, 11; situation 
as to, 48-52 

HiHeret, M., rise of, to wealth, 
322-323 

Hills, E. C, translation of Rub^n 
Darlo's ode To Roosevelt by, 271 

Hispanic America, use of term, 178 

Histories by Latin-American 
scholars, 261-262 

Honduras, size of, 10; member of 
Federation of Central America, 
172; past history of, 175-176; 
statistics and useful informa- 
tion concerning, 371-372; banks 
and banking institutions in, 
388, 395 

Hookworm, campaign against, in 
Paraguay, 214 

Horse-racing, wealth evidenced 
by, 26 

Hotels, opportunity for invest- 
ment in, 318-320; Latin-Amer- 
ican views of American, 342-343 

Housing, for workingmen, 103- 
104; Congress on, in Buenos 
Aires, 219-220; reform in, 220 

Howard, Thomas, pedigreed cat- 
tle introduced into Uruguay by, 
58 

Iguazii Falls, Brazil, 14 
lUampu, Mt., in Bolivia, 16 
Illimani, Mt., in Bolivia, 16 
lUiteracy, statistics of, 290 
Immigrants, fortunes built up by, 

in Latin America, 321-323 
Immigration into Latin America, 
35 ff.; of Itahans into Argen- 
tina, Uruguay, and Brazil, 37- 
39; of Germans into Chile, 
Brazil, and Argentina, 39-43; 
British, 43-44; small extent of 
North American, 44; tabular 
statistics of, 45; effect of, on 
labor conditions, 95-98 
Imperialism, fear of American, 
339-340 



Indians, 20-21;. as laborers, 95- 
96; intemperance among, and 
preventive measures, 216-217, 
301-302 

Individualism, transition from, to 
social regulation in Latin Amer- 
ica, 225-226 

Industria Femenil, society of, 
Lima, 294 

Industries, progress in, 53-80 

International rapprochement, 158- 
177 

Investments, American, in Latin 
America, 132-134, 309-311 

Iquitos, Peru, water transporta- 
tion to, 15 

Irigoyen, HipoUto, President of 
Argentine Republic, 96, 121 

Iron, deposits of, in Brazil, 11; in 
Latin America generally, 72 

Isolation, emergence of Latin 
America from, 27-35 

Italians, immigration of, into Ar- 
gentina, 37-38; in Uruguay and 
in Brazil, 38-39 

Japanese, coal deposits in Chile 
owned by, 76; business inter- 
ests of, in South America, 134- 
135 
Jockey Club, Buenos Aires, 26 
Jornal do Commercio, O, of Rio de 

Janeiro, 149, 351 
JournaUsm. See Newspapers 
Journals, scientific and educa- 
tional, 261 

Keith, Minor C, founder of 
United Fruit Company, 55, 
314 

Kennedy, R. T., quoted on Brit- 
ish trade with Latin America, 
113 

Knox, Secretary, visit of, to Latin 
America, 158 

Krupps, recent concession of land 
to, in Chile, 125 

"Kultur," American, 341-344 

Labor^ changing conditions of, in 
Latm America, 95-98; legisla- 
tion affecting, 98-100; protec- 
tion of children and women in, 
100-102 



Index 



409 



Lakes of Latin America, 13. See 

Waterways 
Lamport and Holt Line, 33 
Land, terms for secm-ing, 327-330 
La Plata, Rio de, as means of 

transportation, 13 
Latan6, John H., The United 
States and Latin America, cited, 
153 
Latin America, new views in re- 
gard to, 1-3; comparison with 
United States, 3-5; common 
misconceptions concerning, 5-7; 
immense size of, 8-11; trans- 
portation in, 11-12; immense 
coastlines of, 12-13; natural 
advantages of, 13-19; negro 
and Indian questions in, 19-21; 
not "effete," 21-24; signs of 
greatness of, 24-26; emergence 
of, from isolation, 27-35; im- 
migration into, 35-46; develop- 
ment of transportation in, 46- 
52; changes and advances in 
industries of, 53-62; oil and 
coal production in, 62-76; pros- 
pects for lumbering industry, 
76-79; manufacturing condi- 
tions and prospects in, 81-95; 
labor conditions in, 95-104; 
comparison with United States 
in development of industries, 
104-106; paramount foreign 
industries in, 107-135; the 
Monroe Doctrine and the North 
American peril, 136-157; rap- 
prochement between, and Euro- 
pean Latin countries, 165-166; 
rapprochement among countries 
of, themselves, 166-168; pro- 
posal for poKtical confederation, 
169-172; growth of national- 
ism in, 178 ff.; historical rea- 
sons for lack of sohdarity among 
Spanish countries of, 185-189; 
social development of, 204 ff.; 
foreign influences on social 
usage of, 206-209; physical 
culture and athletics in, 209- 
212; new conception of sanita- 
tion in, 212-215; social move- 
ments, prohibition, etc., in, 215- 
224; transition from individual- 
ism to social regulation in, 225- 



226; pubhc enlightenment and 
education in, 227-254; cultural 
development of, and its chief 
agencies, 255-278; position of 
woman in, 279-305; the field of 
opportunity in, 306-327; col- 
onization conditions in, 327- 
332; views held by people of, 
of so-called "Yankees," 333- 
358; statistical summary and 
resume of useful information re- 
garding, 359-386; foreign and 
native financial institutions of, 
387-398 

League for Anti-Alcoholic Prop- 
aganda, Peru, 217 

Le Breton, T. A., representative 
of Argentina, 67-68 

Libraries, as educational agencies, 
252-253 

Lick, James, American capitalist, 
314 

Lima, housing for workingmen in, 
104; Industria Femenil of, 294 

Literature, regionahstic phase of 
Latin-American, and effect on 
patriotism, 198-200; progress of 
Latin- American, compared with 
progress of American literature, 
256-264; schools ofj 264-266; 
Andres Bello, Sarrmento, and 
Ruben Dario as representatives 
of, 266-272 

Llanquihue, German colonists of, 
40 

Llanquihue, Lake, 13 

Longitudinal Railway, Chile, 48 

Lotteries, an adoption of a Euro- 
pean custom, 210; activities of 
women against, 301 

Lumber, prospects for, in Latin 
America, 76-80 

Luro, Pedro, immigrant who be- 
came a milUonaire, 322 

Mackenzie, Murdo, expert in cat- 
tle and packing industries, 62 

Magdalena River, as means of 
transportation, 13; petroleum 
areas along, 70-71 

Mails, information as to, 383-384 

Manners, American, distastefiil to 
Latin Americans and Euro- 
peans, 353-355. See Customs 



410 



Index 



Manufacturing, general situation 
as to, in Latin-American coun- 
tries, 81-94; future of, 94-95; 
comparison with that of United 
States, 104-106 
Maracaibo, Lake, oil production 

in region of, 70 
Maracay, Venezuela, paper-mak- 
ing at, 88 
Matto Grosso, highway to, 51 
Meiges, Henry, American engineer 

and builder, 313-314 
Mercantile Bank of the Americas, 

branches of, 132 
Meta River, 13 

Mexico, silver production in, 11; 
coastUne of, 12; Indians in, 20; 
railroads of, 48 ; cotton-growing 
in, 53; mineral resources of, 54; 
cattle-raising in, 57; future 
prospects for cattle-raising in, 
59-60; oil from, 62-64; coal in, 
73; cotton growing and manu- 
facture in, 86; varied manu- 
factures of, 93-94; labor laws 
of, 99; protection of children in 
industries in, 101; trade of 
United States with, 108, 109; 
social programme of, 222-224; 
pubUc education in, 231, 237- 
238; National Library of, 252; 
modern art in, 275-276; sta- 
tistics of, and summary of use- 
ful information, 372-374; banks 
in, 395-396 
Mexico City, cathedral in, 24; 

union railway station in, 48 
Minerals, production of, in Latin 

America, 11, 54 
Misconceptions regarding Latin 

America, 5-7 
Missionaries, numbers and work 

of, 220-221 
Misti, Mt., in Peru, 15 
Monroe Doctrine, conflicting 
views of, 137; Latin- American 
notion of transformation of, 
138-140; contradictory appli- 
cations of, 140-142; an obso- 
lete expression, 142; President 
Roosevelt's interpretation of, 
144-146; application or non- 
apphcation of, to republics 
south of Caribbean territory, 



147-150; intelligent Latin- 
American view of, 150; in 
reality a Pan-American Doc- 
trine, 151-154; unnecessary ia 
respect to non-Caribbean coun- 
tries of Latin America, 156; 
broadening of, 157; suggested 
avoidance of use of term, 157 

Montevideo, housing for working- 
men in, 103-104 

Moral conditions in Latin Amer- 
ica, 6; proper angle for judg- 
ment of, 7-8 

Motion pictures, as educational 
agencies, 253 

Mountains of Latin America, 15- 
16 

Munson Steamship Line, 34 

Music as the adored art of Latin 
America, 276-277 

Nacidn, La, newspaper, 149, 351 

National City Bank, branches of, 
in Latin America, 131-132, 387- 
389 

National Temperance League, 
Peru, 217 

Nationalism, growth of, in Latin 
America, 178-203; entente idea 
among Latin-American nations, 
203 

Negro, problem of, non-existent in 
Latin America, 19-20; treat- 
ment of, 208 

Nelson, Ernesto, educational 
leader, 233 

Newspapers, Buenos Aires, 23; 
English, in Buenos Aires, 44; 
influence of, in overcoming isola- 
tion, 52; high types of, in Chile 
and Brazil, 149; sociahzation of 
plants of, 216; as educational 
agencies, 253; need for estab- 
lishment of American, 331; 
Latin-American judgment of 
American, 344-346; differences 
between American and Latin- 
American, 350-352 
Nicaragua, Indians in, 20; road- 
building in, 50; not yet a mem- 
ber of Federation of Central 
America, 172-173; past history 
of, 175-176; summary of useful 
information concerning, 374- 



Index 



411 



S75; banks and banking insti- 
tutions in, 388, 396 
Nitrates, production of, 11 
Normal schools, development of, 
243-245; one of strongest di- 
visions of educational system, 
297 
Novels of Latin America, 200 

O'Hara, John P., on propaganda 
against American shipping, 129 

Oil, production of, in Latin 
America, 11; history of indus- 
try, 62-72 

OUves, from Chile, 55 

Opportunity, field of, in Latin 
America, 306-332 

Orinoco River, as means of trans- 
portation, 13 

Pacific Steamship Company, 33 
Packing industry in Latin Amer- 
ica, 59, 61-62 
Packmg plants, American, 311 
Painters, Latin-American, 255, 

273-276 
Palace of Congress, building of, 
by Government of Argentina, 
22 
Panama, city of, future of, 25 
Panama, Repubhc of, oil industry 
in, 65; statistics and useful in- 
formation concerning, 375-376; 
banks and banking institutions 
in, 388, 396 
Panama Canal, traffic facilitated 
by, 12; shortening of distances 
to Latin America by, 28; ton- 
nage transmitted through, 33 
Panama-Costa Rica boundary dis- 
pute, 138, 139, 140 
Pan-American Bulletin, articles 

in, 162 
Pan-American leadership of 
United States, foreign antag- 
onism to, 159-165 
Pan-American Magazine, 128 
Pan-American Union, work of, 128 
Paper, manufacture of, in Ven- 
ezuela, 88; in Brazil, 92 
Paraguay, size of, 10; waterfalls 
and water-power of, 14-15; 
climate of, 18-19; Germans in, 
43; prospects for cattle-raising 



in, 59-60; labor conditions in, 
98; an individual nationality, 
194; summary of usefvd in- 
formation about, 376-377; 
banks in, 396 

Parand, State of, Germans in, 41 

Parand River, 14 

Pascarella, Luis, quoted, 341 

Patagonia, grazing ranches in, 25; 
British settlers in, 44 

Patriotism, factors in development 
of, in Latin-American countries, 
192-195; dictators as contrib- 
utors to, 195-197; modern 
methods of inspiring, 197-198; 
regionalistic literature and, 198- 
200; effect on, of fear of United 
States, 201-202 

Pearson, F. S., engineer^ 314 

Pefia, Carlos Ferndndez, Chilean 
temperance leader, 217 

Peonage system, passing of, 103 

People's University, Buenos Aires, 
251 

Periodicals, published by Latin- 
American workingmen, 102- 
103; scientific and educational, 
261. See also Newspapers 

Peru, vanadium from, 11; moun- 
tains of, 15; Indians in, 20; 
British settlers in, 44; railroads 
of, 48; roads in, 51-52; cotton 
growing and manufacture in, 53, 
55, 86; mineral resoiu-ces of, 54; 
futm-e of cattle-raising in, 59- 
60; government restrictions on 
oU industry in, 66; coal in, 74- 
75; protection of children in 
industries in, 101; campaign 
against alcoholism in, 216-217; 
pubhc education in, 231; So- 
ciety of Feminine Industry in, 
294; r6sum6 of information 
concerning, 377-379; banks and 
banking institutions in, 389, 397 

Petroleum. See Oil 

PetropoUs, Treaty of, 155 

Physical ciilture, progress in, 
among Latin Americans, 209- 
212 

Physicians, numbers and achieve- 
ments of, 212-213 

Piper, American capitalist, 323 

Platinum from Colombia, 64 



412 



Index 



Poetry, development of Latin- 
American, 258, 263 

Poets, Latin-American, 255 

Porto Rico, a United States pos- 
session, 139 

Portugal, former commercial pol- 
icy of, toward Brazil, 111-112 

Postal information, 383-384 

Potato, origin of, in Chile, 18 

PotosI, mines of, 11 

Precious stones, production of, in 
Brazil, 11, 54 

Prensa, La, newspaper of Buenos 
Aires, 23, 149, 351, 355 

Prison reform, 220 

Prohibition movement, 216-219; 
influence of women in, 301-302 

Putumayo River, vastness of, 13 

Quito, railway from Guayaquil to, 
48; population, newspapers, 
and hotels of, 369; banks in, 394 

Railroads, development of, in 
Latin America, 11; conditions 
as to, 46-49; British invest- 
ments in, 115-116 

Railway supplies, manufacture of, 
in Brazil, 92 

Rapprochement, international, 158; 
between Latin America and 
Eiu"opean Latin countries, 165- 
166; among Latin-American 
countries themselves, 166-168 

Refrigeration of meats for export, 
60 

Rehgion, tolerance in matters of, 
among Latin Americans, 208; 
instruction in, given by mis- 
sionaries, 220-221 

Revolutions in Latin America, 
misconceptions regarding, 6 

Reyes, Rafael, explorations of, 
13 

Ribas, Mario, article by, quoted, 
31 

Rio de Janeiro, harbor of, 12; 
building of Avenida do Rio 
Branco in, 23; Botanical Gar- 
dens of, 24; shipping at, 32-33 

Rio Grande do Sul, crops produced 
in, 17-18; prices of land in, 36; 
Germans in, 41 

River of Doubt, size of, 14 



Rivers of Latin America, 13-14. 
See Waterways 

Roads. See Highways 

Rockefeller Foimdation, campaign 
waged on yellow fever by, in 
Ecuador, 237 

Roosevelt, Theodore, quoted on 
South America, 2; Rio Theo- 
doro named for, 14; interpre- 
tation of Monroe Doctrine by, 
144-146; expedition of, to 
Brazil, 158 

Root, Elihu, quoted on South 
America, 2; on disadvantages 
of shipping in vessels of com- 
petitors, 129' visit of, to Latin 
America, 158 

Ross, E. A., cited on physical 
tests of school children, 211; 
quoted on position of woman in 
South America, 282; on truth- 
telling in writing about South 
Americans, 298 

Rowe, Leo S., Director of Pan- 
American Union, 128 

Rubber, production of, 53; manu- 
facture of articles of, 88 

Salvador, roads in, 50; member of 

Federation of Central America, 

172; past history of, 175-176; 

summary of useful information 

concerning, 378-379; banks in, 

397 
Salvation Army, stations of, 221 
Sanitation, new conception of, 

212-215; in Mexico under Diaz, 

224 
Santa Catharina, Brazil, Germans 

in, 41 
Santiago, Chile, recreation park in, 

24; Palace of Fine Arts of, 

273 
Santo Domingo. See Dominican 

Republic 
Sao Paulo, Brazil, miUtaiy bar- 
racks in, 24; ItaUans in, 39; 

industrial activities of, 91 
Sao Paulo-Santos railroad liiie, 

47-48 
Sarasara, Mt., in Peru, 15 
Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino, 

the ' ' schoolmaster-president, 

232, 243, 267-270 



Index 



413 



Schmidt, Francisco, rise of, to 

wealth, 322 
Schools, development of normal, 
243-245; estabUshment of 
American, in Latin America, 
331-332. See Education 
Schurz, W. L., U. S. Trade Com- 
missioner, 69 
Schwalbe, Karl, expert on forestry, 

78 
Science and scientists in Latin 

America, 277-278 
Sculptors, Latin-American, 255 
Service, doctrine of, in interna- 
tional trade, 123-125 
Sete Quedas Falls, Paraguay, 14- 

15 
Sherrill, Charles H., quoted, 163 
Shipping, increase in facilities for, 
32-35; disadvantages attached 
to use of competitors' vessels for, 
129; rate of increase in Amer- 
ican, 130 
Silver, production of, 11; in 

Mexico, 54 
Slavery, last of, in Latin America, 

31 
Smith, C. Dunbar, agricultural 

colonizer, 59, 327 
Social development of Latin Amer- 
ica, 204-226 
Social evils, women and the 

eradication of, 301-302 
Social movements, 215-216 
Songs, national, 197 
South American, periodical, 128 
Spain, misconceptions regarding, 
5-6; former monopoly of Latin- 
American trade by. 111; efforts 
of, to establish new relations 
with Latin America, 165-166; 
lack of national loyalty among 
people of, 187; Latin- American 
countries not to be confused 
with, 189-190 
Speer, Robert E., on Chilean 

educational system, 234 
Sports, increasing fondness for, 

210-212 
Steamship hues to Latin America, 

33-34 
Stebinger, E., oil statistics by, 64 
Stinnes, Hugo, steamship line 
planned by, for South American 



trade, 34; land tracts acquired 

by, in Argentina, 125 
Strikes in Argentina, 96-97 
Subway in Buenos Aires, 131 
Sugar, production of, 53, 54-55 

Tablelands of Latin America, 16 
Tariff, protection of industries by, 
105-106; situation resulting 
from, 168 
Teachers, training of women for, 

296-298 
Teacher-training schools, 243-245 
Telegraph and telephone systems, 

effects of, 52 
Temperance movement, 216-219; 
influence of women in, 301-302 
Thorium, from Brazil, 54 
Tin, from Bolivia, 11, 54 
Titicaca, Lake, traffic on, 13 
Tobacco, production of, 63; from 

Cuba, 55 
Tobar Doctrine, formvdation of, 

154 
Torncjuist, business house of, 314 
Tourist travel, prospects for, 16 
Trade, of United States with Latin 
America, 107-109, 307-318; na- 
tional mobilization for Latin- 
American, 109-111; change in 
attitude concerning, 111-114 
Trans-Andean railroad, 48 
Transportation, question of, 11- 
12; modern advances in, 46-52 
Trinidad, asphalt from, 54 

"Uncle Sam" conception held of 
Americans, 333-334 

United States, comparison of de- 
velopment of Latin America 
with that of, 3-5; Latin Amer- 
ica compared with, as to size, 
9-10; commerce of Latin Amer- 
ica and, compared, 21; shorten- 
ing of distances from, to Latin 
America by Panama Canal, 28- 
29; immigration figures of 
Latin America compared with 
those of, 36-37; small amount of 
immigration into Latin Amer- 
ica from, 44; railroad situation 
in Latin America and, con- 
trasted, 46-47; scientists and 
industrial investigators from. 



414 



Index 



56-57; Latin- American special- 
ists sent to, for study, 67; ex- 
celled by Latin America in 
cattle-raising^ 57; activities of 
packers of, m Latin America, 
59; lumber imported to Latin 
America from, 76-77; labor 
troubles in Latin America and, 
compared, 98; comparison with, 
in development of industries, 
104-106; statistics of trade of, 
with Latin America, 107-109, 
307-318; weakness of former 
methods of, in Latin-American 
trade, 12&-1275 present-day 
supremacy of, in trade, 127; 
new elements in business of, in 
Latin America, 127-128; mat- 
ter of shipping, 129-130; bank- 
ing and investments by, 131- 
134, 387-389; maintenance of 
Monroe Doctrine by, 136 ff* 
justifiable policy of, toward 
Caribbean countries, 142-144; 
foreign antagonism to Pan- 
American leadership of, 159- 
165; influence of fear of, on 
Latin-American patriotism, 
201-202; influence of, on Latin- 
American customs and manners, 
206-207, 209, 219; comparison 
of Latin-American progress in 
literature with that of, 256-264; 
Latin- American views and opin- 
ions regarding people of, 333- 
358 

Universities, ancient, in Latin 
America, 228, 260; admission of 
Latin-American students to 
American, 239-240; Ein-opean 
characteristics of Latin-Ameri- 
can, 241-242; in Argentina, for 
training teachers, 244 

Uruguay, chmate of, 18j Ital- 
ians in, 38; Germans m, 43; 
highways and roads in, 60-51; 
cattle-raising in, 67-69; affores- 
tation in, 79; labor legislation 
in, 99; an individual national- 
ity, 194; comparative health- 
fulness of, 213; public educa- 
tion in, 231, 236; normal schools 
in, 244; statistics of, and sum- 
mary of useful information, 



379-380; banks and banking 
institutions in, 389, 397-398 
Uruguay River, 14; project for 
international power plant on, 
71-72 

Vaccaria, highway to, 51 

Valdivia, Chile, German colo- 
nists of, 39-40 

Vanadium, production of, in Peru, 
11, 54 

Van Dyke, Harry W., cited on 
American shipping, 308 

Venezuela, road-building in, 50; 
asphalt from, 54; prospects for 
cattle-raising in, 59-60; oil 
industry in, 69-70; coal in, 73; 
cotton growing and manufac- 
ture in, 86; paper-making in, 
88; famous pamters of, 274; 
colonization conditions in, 328; 
statistics of area, population, 
trade, and other information, 
summarized, 380-382; banks 
and banking institutions in, 389, 
398 

Verrill, A. H., quoted on North 
American views of Latin Amer- 
ica, 8 

Veterinary medicine, higher insti- 
tution of, in Rio de Janeiro, 248 

Virgin Islands, acquisition of, by 
United States, 139 

Vivanco, Jos6 A., agricultviral 
commissioner to United States, 
57 

Volcanoes, Avenue of, in Ecuador, 
15 

Voting by Latin-American women, 
286-287 

Ward, Greorge F., educational in- 
stitution founded by, 245-246 

Waterfalls of Latin America, 14- 
15 

Water-power, amount of, 14-15 

Waterways, transportation on, 
11-12; superiority of Latin 
America in, 13-14 

Wealth, evidences of, in Latin 
America, 26 

Wells, W. C, of Pan-American 
Umon, 120 



Index 



415 



West Indies, Germans in, 40; room 
for expansion in, 325 

Westinghouse Company, success 
of, in Latin America, 315-316 

Wheelwright, William, American 
pioneer, 314 

Winter, Nevin O., quoted on 
"effeteness" of Latin America, 
22^ on use of American ma- 
chinery in Latin America, 318; 
on Latin-American hotels, 319 

Women, protection of, in indus- 
tries, 101-102; position of, in 
Latin America, 279-281; South- 
ern European antecedents of 
Latin-American, 282; effect on, 
of example set by American 
women, 283; legal status of, 
283-285; modern ideas affect- 
ing status of, 285-286; voting 
by, 286-287; social factors in 
movement for improving status 
of, 289-290; education of, 290- 
292; vocational training for, 
292-293; attraction of teaching 
profession for, 296-298; and 
eradication of social evils, 301- 
302; child- welfare work of, 



302-304; greater freedom now 
permitted to, in the larger 
cities, 304r-305 
Wool, production of, 53 

Yankee, use of term, as applied to 
people of United States, 333- 
337 

Yankee peril, Latin-American ap- 
prehensions regarding, 138-140 

Yellow fever, prevention of, in 
Cuba, 213; in ports of Brazil 
and of West Coast, 214; cam- 
paign against, in Guayaquil, 
Ecuador, 237 

Y. M. C. A., athletics encouraged 
by, 212; solid foundation of, in 
Latin America, 221-222; ab- 
sence of political motives from, 
222 

Y. W. C. A., 221-222; value of 
work of, to Latin-American 
girls and women, 304 

Zahm, J. A., quoted on Uruguay, 
18; on Germans in Brazil, 41- 
42; on Andres BeUo, 278 






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